Are They Really That Desperate?

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/04/nj_gov_chris_christie_criticiz.html

It is quite appalling watching Chris Christie fulminate about the evil teachers of New Jersey. He thinks everyone hates teachers - they don't work nine to five, they get to loaf all summer, their health insurance policies say that they and their families have free health insurance for life (if true, my husband plans to move to the Garden State), etc. He is gloating that more than half the towns voted against school budgets. In fact I am amazed that so many towns voted their budgets through. Having lived in a few small towns, I am acutely aware of how many residents that don't have children or whose children are out of school, feel no need to fund schools and seem to hate children. After all, according to them, when they were in school, there were forty five children in the class and they suffered no ill effects, which is debatable if you ask me. Often chool budgets are one area that locals have some control over, so there is often mean-spirited, contentious debate. It has been quite heartening seeing the support that teachers are getting from students, or should I say drug mules. Christie is now being touted as a possible GOP candidate for president, which I find pretty strange. Christie is a total political hack who used his US attorney's office for political gain. He filed corruption charges against Menendez right before election, charges that evaporated after his re-election. Christie was a terrible candidate, not to mention completely physically hideous and only won because voters hated Corzine. He just started his first term, and the very suggestion of Christie as a candidate smacks of desperation. Now where have I seen a first term GOP governor picked for higher office, and how did that work out?

My husband asked me to explain the Chris "The Count" Chocola, so I guess a little background is necessary. Aside from allegations about the energy money he received, his list of mentors and friends is a who'se who in GOP corruption. He counts among his BFF Tom Delay, the disgraced Bob Ney and Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who is currently doing hard time. "The Count" lost his re-election bid because of the stink that came out of his office.

Friendship and Morality, Republican Style

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/morning-fix/committee-spending-crests-1-mi.html

Charlie Crist is getting a fine dose of Republican payback. With all the whining about the importance of bipartisanship, the fact that Crist said positive things about Obama when his state was awarded a heap of stimulus money, doomed him with his party. That famous maverick, John McCain has backed Rubio, even though Christ delivered Florida for him in the primary season and was considered a potential VP. Hell, Crist even got married. No matter that Rubio, who establishment Republicans are flocking to, has been in the news lately because of corruption. And Crist is supposed to listen to the disgraced Count Chocola about what he should do with money sent him by Republicans? The Count is hardly someone that one should listen to about matters of morality. Among other transgressions, he was the one who accepted large sums of money from energy companies and refused to penalize them for price gouging. If you wait long enough, anyone, even the most disgraced, is recycled and is born anew in the Republican Party. I bet if Spiro Agnew were alive, he would be pontification on Fox News.

The Art of the Shameless

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/25/AR2010042501065_2.html

Lindsey Graham has a pretty peculiar reason for stomping away from a proposed press conference about a climate change bill with his best Joey Lieeeeeberman - immigration reform is going to be discussed in the Senate. Never has Lindsey seen such a cynical ploy!!! No, he is not talking about his behavior - he is talking about the Dems talking about immigration. Now what party's actions have pushed the need for immigration reform into people's faces? What state has become the shame of the country for its asking the populace to carry papers to prove citizenship. What party does the esteemed governor from Arizona belong to? Jan Brewer, a fine graduate of Glendale Community College (OK, that was a really snotty comment, but I couldn't resist) bears a striking resemblance to Connecticut's own Linda MacMahon and who is a model of coarseness. But let us take Graham's complaint of face value, so you think the environment is so important, that is should be the first thing on the Senate's agenda, and when it isn't you won't let it be discussed at all? That doesn't make any sense at all, unless you consider that ole Lindsey must be under tremendous pressure from the loonies in his own party to end this bipartisan nonsense and come back to the fold. Of course this is the same fold that welcomes so called Tea Party member, William Gheen who demanded that Graham confess that he is gay and being blackmailed by or in the thrall of the studly Joe Lieeeeeberman. Personally, I think finding Lieeeeeeberman attractive, either physically or intellectually, is worthy of blackmail. But to do something like that to distance oneself from such allegations would a shameless political ploy! Oh, where have I heard those words?

A Penny for the Guy

http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2010/04/23/republican-governors-pay-homage-to-guy-fawkes/#ixzz0lxs6HqRc

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/04/have-conservatives-gone-mad/39417/

As if we needed proof that the Republicans are bat shit crazy, but this is pretty amazing. It is pretty astounding that they are taking Guy Fawkes as their hero because he tried to blow up Parliament in 1605. I know that V for Vendetta glamorized Fawkes, but this clearly shows their tenuous grasp of history or reality. I wonder what the Brits think... I don't think Ron Paul and his ilk realize that every November 5th, children all over England burn Guy Fawkes in effigy. My father was a man of great ingenuity and enthusiasm, and when we lived in a small English Village, he took Guy Fawkes Day as a personal challenge. The village got together to burn all the Guys. Most Guys are rather primitive, but my father dressed our Guy in some of his old clothes and wired the Guy so that he would writhe in pain as the he burned. The villagers thought this was a bit over the top, saying things like "Oh these Americans, taking our simple holidays and making a mockery." This amused my father a great deal. Somehow, it seems strange that the Republicans are so eager to control government, the very government that they seem to want people to blow up. You would think they would learn something from the past. Is Timothy McVeigh a hero to the Republican Party? After all, he blew up a government building. They are truly a party with out thought.

Rats, Republican Style

It is sort of amusing to watch the Republicans scurrying towards supporting some sort of financial reform. No doubt self interest had a lot to do with it. Much as they would like to stymie anything Obama proposes, most of all they want to be re-elected. Sorry Mitch, but this was a non starter. It will be fun to count the votes- maybe only Jim Bunning, the genius behind blocking unemployment benefits, will vote against it. I guess they discovered that being the stalwart defenders of Wall Street didn't pan out on Main Street. Their cynical ploy of trying to cast reform as promoting bail outs didn't work out all that well. The American public maybe stupid about health care, but this was one issue where it was not possible to be so completely deceptive. Most likely they were giddy with their success at creating fear of death panels and didn't realize this was an impossible argument. It is nice to see that the odious Frank Luntz fell flat on his face.

Who do you trust?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/18/AR2010041802724.html
Much has been made about the Tea Party in the media, including massive media coverage of Tea Party demonstrations. This is the same media that completely ignored all the demonstrations against the was in Iraq. There are endless shots of the sparsely attended Tea Party events, whereas any anti war demonstration barely earned a yawn, even if attended by hundreds of thousand people. Hey, why weren't we a movement, endless courted and interviewed? Maybe it is because much of the Tea Party frenzy was sponsored by that fine network, Fox News. I am not dismissing all dissatisfaction with and trust in government, which Pew has reported on, but there are many people who would express concerns who do not fall into the Tea Party category, like me. Do I trust my government to do the right thing? Not always. Do I have faith in Congress? Not much. My auntie has been hounding me for a list of people in Congress I trust and respect, and I am sad to say the list is quite short and not growing. There has been incessant anti government rhetoric in the media for a really, really long time. I can't forget the segment on NBC called the Golden Fleece Awards, and there are often segments about idiocy in the Federal government. Well news flash - there is idiocy in every organization, large and small, and given the size of the Federal government, there are more examples of idiocy. But as many have pointed out, endless anti government talk encourages the crazies to do crazy things. It was nice to pass April 19th without something horrible happening.

I'm baaaaaaaack, sort of

I haven't posted in a long time, done in by the Scott Brown election, but my daughter tells me she misses my posts, and I like to make my children happy. So in December the world was going mad over Tiger Woods. Tiger frenzy has subsided a bit, especially after the Masters, where although he played well, he didn't win. I watched some of the Masters. For some reason, I find golf on TV strangely compelling. Unless a player is complete toad, I tend to want the ball to go in the cup. Tom Watson reached Toad status by saying something snarkey about Obama at an awards ceremony, and Retief Goosen is a permanent member of the Toad Club, along with Vijay Singh. Reteif for his mean and incorrect comments about Tiger dogging it during a tournament and making out that his knee was a problem. Tiger went on to have knee surgery and miss months of playing. Vijay Singh just for his generally stupid comments about women. But no longer is the press fulminating about all Tiger's transgressions, but perhaps since I don't read the tabloids, I am blissfully unaware of the latest woman claiming to have sex with him. One of the more disturbing aspects about Tiger was his brief hire of ARI FLEISHER!!! My god, not Ari. Who on earth would want ole Ari as their spokesperson. I guess Tiger's thinking was that if Ari could keep the public from uprising against the Idiot Prince, he could even represent Satan or at least the Pope. He must have figured his transgressions pale in comparison to those of the Bush administration, so why not give Ari a whirl. However, Ari blessedly disappeared from the scene, which was a great relief.