Saturday, May 04, 2013

Well, things are getting all testosterone-y out in the states, these days.  Letters are flying back and forth between Governors, Lt. Governors and the Department of Justice on a regular basis.  Still reeling from President Obama’s re-election and the dashing of their dreams of Mitt-topia, Republican governors in Red America have obviously decided that secession is way too costly and impractical and they are now concentrating their puffed-up provincial power on nullification.

In late April, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) signed the 2nd Amendment Protection Act, a so-called nullification act, in Kansas.  According to the new Kansas law, Kansas basically declares that it won’t enforce “unconstitutional laws” having to do with guns, magazines or ammunition:

Sec. 6. (a) Any act, law, treaty, order, rule or regulation of the government of the United States which violates the second amendment to the constitution of the United States is null, void and unenforceable in the state of Kansas.

Not really newsworthy since no one really expects them to uphold unconstitutional laws, anyway.  The key, here, is who decides whether or not a law is unconstitutional.  The Kansas law doesn’t go into that but everyone who’s passed high school civics knows the answer—and it isn’t the “Kansas Legislature.”

That’s just the silly part. 

The part that gave Eric Holder pause was this part:

Sec. 7. It is unlawful for any official, agent or employee of the government of the United States, or employee of a corporation providing services to the government of the United States to enforce or attempt to enforce any act, law, treaty, order, rule or regulation of the government of the United States upon a firearm, a firearm accessory, or ammunition that is manufactured commercially or privately and owned in the state of Kansas and that remains within the borders of Kansas. Violation of this section is a severity level 10 nonperson felony.

In defense of that bit of the law, State Representative Brett Hildabrand, shared visions of Nazis dancing in his head, saying:

The citizens of Kansas do not belong to the United States. The United States belongs to the citizens of Kansas! We cannot allow the response, “I was following orders” to be an excuse for violating our Constitutional rights. How many atrocities have been committed in history by people simply following orders?

I guess Kansans are more theatrical than I ever guessed.

read the whole post »

Posted by Bette Noir on 05/04/13 at 11:18 AM
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Friday, April 26, 2013

Can’t tell you how fed up I am with watching the nuts running the asylum there on Capitol Hill.  It would be riotously funny, if it weren’t so utterly pathetic to watch incompetent screwballs blow through our tax dollars, day after day, year after year, indulging their off the wall political delusions.  WTF is the matter with American voters that these are the people they choose to run the frickin country?

The current hallucination that’s taken the Paranoid Caucus by storm is that . . . well, wait a minute, why don’t I let the gullible goobers taken in by this nonsense and busily scribbling away at legislation to stymie the Evil Empire of Obama speak for themselves:

President Obama has been adamant about curbing law-abiding Americans’ access and opportunities to exercise their Second Amendment rights.  One way the Obama Administration is able to do this is by limiting what’s available in the market with federal agencies purchasing unnecessary stockpiles of ammunition. As the public learned in a House committee hearing this week, the Department of Homeland Security has two years worth of ammo on hand and allots nearly 1,000 more rounds of ammunition for DHS officers than is used on average by our Army officers. The AMMO* Act of 2013 will enforce transparency and accountability of federal agencies’ ammunition supply while also protecting law-abiding citizens access to these resources.

*AMMO Act = Ammunition Management for More Obtainability Act

The masterminds behind this legislative silliness are: Rep. Frank Lucas (R-OK) and America’s pre-eminent Wacko Bird, Sen. Jim Inhofe who are, evidently, huge fans of Alex Jones who, among others, has been hyping the notion that the government is “stockpiling” ammunition, either to wage a war against the American people or to dry up the ammunition market so average citizens can’t buy bullets. [Not sure which, yet, I guess]

The bill would require executive branch agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to maintain ammunition levels below the average monthly amounts that the agencies had before Obama took office.

All of this comes just in time, of course, to save the public from long lines at ammunition outlets during the summer Community-Pig-Roast-Kegger-and-Shoot-‘Em-Up events at America’s target ranges and south forties.

I’m guessing that this legislation is a direct result, in part, of the wildly successful grilling of Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano during a House hearing on the DHS budget, last week.  Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) decided to derail those proceedings to play a little hardball and get to the bottom of Homeland Security’s role in the secret stockpiling of ammunition.

Here’s how that went:

DUNCAN: You know, when Forbes Magazine or Drudge or some reputable news sources start to repeat the numbers…the numbers cease to become Internet rumors and they start having some credibility. I just ask, why was there a long delay or silence from the DHS for a period of time, almost three months, before y’all came forward saying these numbers aren’t correct, these are the actual facts. Why was there a delay or silence from your department?

NAPOLITANO: Well I don’t know about that, that there was that kind of delay, but I will tell you we found it so inherently unbelievable that those statements would be made it was hard to ascribe credibility to them. I don’t know if I’d put Forbes and Drudge in the same sentence.

Well, I ask you, who needs more proof than Drudge to get on the loudspeakers and call it a crisis?

This isn’t the only government intrigue that Rep. Duncan is hot on the trail of, either.  Two weeks ago, he attacked an effort to expand background checks for gun purchases online or at gun shows because he believes, like Matt Drudge, that “the government” is planning a systematic slaughter akin to the Rwandan genocide.  This particular fever dream is known as the Confiscation Theory (ie, national gun registry facilitates gun confiscation).

Even the Breitbartlets, those conservative purveyors of journalistic truth, described this hysteria as “based more on panic than fact.”

The fun part should be when the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre realizes the effect that restricting government ammunition purchases will have on his beloved gun manufacturer constituency.  Maybe Lucas and Inhofe need a remedial course in free market economics.

Here’s how it works, guys:  US government = biggest customer of guns and gun stuff.  If demand goes up - production goes up = more for everybody.  If demand goes down [like you want it to]—production goes down = less for everybody.

And here’s a clue that I won’t even charge you for: when Kenyan usurpers are in the White House and apocalypse is nigh, American gun hysteria ramps up and ammunition goes on back order.  You could solve your own supply issues by not stocking up for the millenium, you silly paranoids.

BTW, what’s with the shortage of freeze-dried rations?

Posted by Bette Noir on 04/26/13 at 12:20 PM
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Thursday, April 25, 2013

Well, a whole new crop of Republican freshman are throwing mind-numbing, tax-dollar-gobbling tantrums in the House already this year.  Seems the new kids on the block are feeling robbed of their chance to sign on to irrelevant, symbolic legislation, that hasn’t passed 36 times now, all because the grown-ups have decided it’s a waste of time and makes the party look even sillier than losing did.

You guessed it—we’re talking Obamacare Repeal and these kids want in.  After all, think about what a firm position on repealing Obamacare did for these high-profile politicos:

Political gold! I know . . .

read the whole post »

Posted by Bette Noir on 04/25/13 at 10:44 AM
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Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Meet Stella— amateur historian, Birther, Glenn Beck fan and Platinum subscriber to Alex Jones InfoWars.  Oh, yeah. and New Hampshire State representative.  Stella Tremblay’s world is riddled with Black Ops, Kenyan usurpers and conspiracies going back centuries but NO ONE WILL LISTEN!!1!  Just like no one, save a select few, ever listen to Glenn Beck.  But Stella Tremblay has had it and no one’s going to shut her up until she gets the media to investigate her leads.

In the midst of representing her constituents, sponsoring important legislation and generally doing her best to make New Hampshire better, Stella paused, like most of us last week, to ponder how something like the Boston Marathon bombing can happen.  Thanks to Glenn Beck and Alex Jones, Stella didn’t have to ponder for long, because Beck and Jones had all the answers.

Only Stella understands the subtle link between some obscure prescient Beck comment and the InfoWars video-link she provided to Beck, via FaceBook, that proves that Beck, Tremblay and Alex Jones are on to THEM.

The Jones video includes what he says are photos of off-duty Navy SEALS, with backpacks full of bombs, near the marathon finish line.  This theory, fits in with the rest of Jones’ ouevre, which includes “proof” that the Oklahoma City bombing and 9/11 were similar “false flag” operations and that former Atty. Gen. Janet Reno ordered the execution of the Branch Davidians in Waco, in 1993.

read the whole post »

Posted by Bette Noir on 04/24/13 at 09:15 AM
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Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Yes, North Carolina, there really is a First Amendment . . .

Anyone who has raised a child knows that one of the hardest life lessons to teach is that not everyone will always agree with one’s most cherished beliefs, or even opinions.  And that other’s will sometimes question one’s motives, criticize one’s approach and even try to thwart one’s actions. 

The hardest part, of course, is to teach the child that even the wildly different opinions and adverse reactions of others must still be respected.  We call it the “Golden Rule” (ie, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you) and it is one of those universal truths, found in some form, in all human societies.  It is key to our wildly successful survival and progress as a species.

Admittedly, some humans teach and learn better than others and, indeed, that Golden Rule is so important that we humans have codified the concept into law.  In law, we recognize certain aspects of our daily lives as inalienable human rights.  Freedom of speech, and it’s sibling, freedom of the press is a perfect example of a right that humans consider so essential to their being and their success that it generally tops all lists in free societies.

The downside to human rights is that they are very attractive cudgels for bullies to use to get their way and exert their dominance—say something I don’t like? I’ll find a way to shut you up;  threaten my life or livelihood?  I’ll kill you, or make you my slave, or, better yet, I’ll take away your vote; want to regulate my behavior, I’ll act out.  You get the idea.

read the whole post »

Posted by Bette Noir on 04/23/13 at 10:25 AM
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Sunday, April 21, 2013

[* The “Toothpick State” referenced the early custom of men carrying large sheath or belt knives, often double-edged dirks or daggers. The “toothpick” served as a common inexpensive sidearm and soon became fixed in the public imagination. The messy dispatching by knife of one Arkansas state representative by another in 1837 cemented the new state’s renown as a violent place.]

UPDATED 4/22 (see below)

UPDATED 4/23 (see below)

Yesterday’s post on the “ill-timed” comments of Rep. Nate Bell of the Arkansas state legislature kicked off a predictable Second Amendment shit-storm of comments.

Today, believe it or not, another Arkansas Neanderthal Republican, in an entirely different context, is advocating a “2nd Amendment Solution” to thinning the herd of Arkansas Republicans.

Chris Nogy, husband of Leigh Nogy, the secretary of the Benton County (Arkansas) Republican Party, submitted a diatribe to the party’s official newsletter which was subsequently published on the official Benton County GOP website.  The issue that set Mr Nogy off was the Arkansas state legislature’s vote approving expansion of the state’s Medicaid program under . . . OBAMASCARE!!1!.

If you care to read the whole crazy-ass rant, be my guest, but, for this post, I’ll just cherry pick a few highlights:

read the whole post »

Posted by Bette Noir on 04/21/13 at 02:11 PM
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Saturday, April 20, 2013

While most of the nation has been glued to their TVs, computers, iPhones and 2-Way Wrist Radios (kidding) for the past week gleaning the bits and pieces of information that help us make sense of the sometimes inexplicable tragedies that befall society, a few of us had visions of payback and ways to score tacky political points dancing in our heads.

One such Biggest Loser is Rep. Nate Bell (R-Dogpatch), a public mistake servant serving in the Arkansas legislature who just couldn’t resist tweeting this little gem during the height of the manhunt for the Boston Marathon bombing suspect:

Who knew that one ignorant cracker with an iPhone would be able to distill the angst of 21st century American society down to 132 characters, and remind the vast majority of us, who were experiencing one of those rare moments of absolute fellowship, that we are a people with grave political problems.

Of course, condemnation and appalled disapproval swiftly ensued in the Twittersphere and a shocked Nate Bell told reporters that:

I really didn’t think about it going to Boston . . .

suggesting that our man, Nate, suffers from some intellectual challenges totally apart from his utter lack of class.  Does anyone out there really believe that their tweets are like drunken statements at a private party?  Forgiven in the morning and chuckled about for a week or two?  If so, I suspect Bell is about to learn the hard lesson that the internet never forgets.

read the whole post »

Posted by Bette Noir on 04/20/13 at 10:33 AM
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Thursday, April 18, 2013

Theoretically, Americans in each of the fifty states elect two people to represent their interests in the US Senate, sometimes called the “world’s greatest deliberative body.”  Today, not so much.

When an issue of national interest garners 90% support of the electorate that’s noteworthy.  The Washington Post researched their polling archives and surveys by other organizations and found that Americans almost never voice this level of consensus on issues, and when they do, they often get what they want.

When an issue of national interest garners 90% support of the electorate, but only 45% of senators vote along with their constituency on that issue, I think it’s safe to say that the system is officially broken.

As noted on ThinkProgress.com:

Indeed, the senators voting for the gun violence prevention measure represent 194 million people, roughly 65 percent of the entire American population, yet were defeated by a minority representing just 118 million people.

read the whole post »

Posted by Bette Noir on 04/18/13 at 12:14 PM
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Wednesday, April 10, 2013

I don’t know what Mitch McConnell is paying his re-election campaign team but, whatever it is, it’s most likely too much.  Then again, it can’t be easy for the Senate’s least popular senator to raise money for re-election to a job at which he clearly sucks. Maybe he got the best he could afford . . . ?

The Keystone Kops of Kentucky oppo research came up with the mother lode of dirt on Democratic candidate Ashley Judd because she did them the service of compiling that data for them in her autobiography.  Way to dig, guys.

Unfortunately, when these sophomoric operatives got together to present their findings and giggle like frat boys over their genius, some ne’er-do-well taped the proceedings and sent the recording along to David Corn at Mother Jones.  The taped meeting is just as lame and goofy as you might expect, so, if you’d like to hear the whole sorry thing, have at it.

read the whole post »

Posted by Bette Noir on 04/10/13 at 11:46 AM
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Monday, March 18, 2013

CPAC2013 reminded me of the story of the “dance band on the Titanic” who, knowing they were about to die, decided to continue to bravely play on in an attempt to buoy the spirits of the doomed souls on board. Harry Chapin memorialized the event with a song that contained the refrain:

Dance band on the Titanic
Sing “Nearer, my God, to thee”
The iceberg’s on the starboard bow
Won’t you dance with me?

And that particular mindset is about the only rational explanation for the behavior of establishment Republicans who have decided to continue to humor the directionless hurly-burly of movement conservatives.

These are obviously people who have assessed the costs and decided that they don’t give a rat’s whether they ever win another election.  Indeed, losers from previous bouts were featured, like conquering heroes, throughout the CPAC agenda—people like Allen West, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, John McCain—Sarah Palin! for the love of Mike.  While conservatives who actually have a snowball’s chance, like Chris Christie and Bob McDonnell, were deemed unfit.

read the whole post »

Posted by Bette Noir on 03/18/13 at 02:55 PM
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Tuesday, March 12, 2013

It would appear that the Republican Party’s “dark night of the soul” is finally over with the dawning realization that better marketing is the answer.  And what a relief that is to the GOP because . . . EASY TO FIX!  With just a little word-smithing and outreach, the masses will discover the heretofore esoteric beauty and humanism of the Republican Platform.

That’s when your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to become makers rather than takers will discover their inner conservative; and when the wretched refuse of someone else’s teeming shore, the homeless, tempest-tost will learn that the “path to citizenship” is a torture-test unless one has an advanced degree.

That’s when the masses will rip off their Obama bumper stickers and stand in long lines for hours to vote, in multiple precincts, for the candidates who found just the right words to explain how un-American it is to be poor and/or old.

It’s really, really stupid.  I know . . . but its what they believe, so what are you going to do?  For the last three months or so, all sorts of folks, including some of their own persuasion, have told them “look you pathetic chuckleheads, it’s not “branding,” it’s not merchandising.  Your policies absolutely suck, not to mention the fact that you lie and cheat and live in a fantasy world.”

read the whole post »

Posted by Bette Noir on 03/12/13 at 10:59 AM
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Wednesday, March 06, 2013

One of the GOP’s post-modern cottage industries has been inventing, burnishing and broadcasting the Fiscal Conservative Fairy Tale that high corporate taxes and frivolous, onerous regulations have turned the country’s “job creators” into a sad, gibbering mob of paranoid paralytics who won’t hire anybody new until their long night of insecurity is over.

Historians trace the birth of this ideological shiny object back to the Clinton years when every single Republican in the House and Senate voted against Bill Clinton’s 1993 upper-income tax hike calling it a “job-killer” which “would not reduce the deficit.”

Fortunately, nobody paid any attention to their seriously flawed financial theories then because . . . WRONG!  Fabulously, uproariously wrong . . . and the #Bush41Fail was still fresh in everyone’s mind.

read the whole post »

Posted by Bette Noir on 03/06/13 at 01:22 PM
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Wednesday, February 20, 2013

This morning I came across a down-to-earth, plain-spoken little gem of bloggage that made my day.  It was posted under the intriguing title: If you Were John Boehner, Your Ass Would Be Fired.  Who could resist?  The post was written by a lady named Sandy Hingston who, it turns out, is a senior editor at Philadelphia magazine right here in my own backyard.

Allow me to share:

Imagine that every day, when you went to your job, you spent the entire time thwarting everything your co-workers and your boss did. Imagine that you took every opportunity possible to undermine them: You badmouthed them to the media, you interfered with their projects, you didn’t show up for meetings, you even stole their lunches out of the office fridge. Imagine that when they came to you for help, you shouted at them and called them names. Imagine that when they came up with new ideas, you shot those ideas down, said, “What, are you crazy? That will never work.” When they issued press releases about the great things your company was doing, you issued press releases that said your company was doing crappy.

How long do you think you’d last, working for that company and that boss?

So elegantly simple.  So true . . .

read the whole post »

Posted by Bette Noir on 02/20/13 at 10:47 AM
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Monday, January 28, 2013

Evidently, Republicans are semi-serious about their campaign to “stamp out the uglitude”  in the hopes of winning some elections this century without redistricting every other week.  At least they’re willing to spend money on it. 

The latest pep rally took place in Charlotte, North Carolina where Republicans decided to shoot the messenger and move on.  I have to agree with Christian Science Monitor reporter, Patrik Jonsson, on the takeaway from that meeting:

The meeting confirmed what most Americans can see plainly: The Party of Lincoln is having a crisis of confidence. The failure of Mitt Romney to connect deeply enough to win a race against a vulnerable Democratic incumbent shook the party establishment, which is already dealing with a powerful internecine and absolutist revolt from right-wingers in the guise of the tea party.

For now, Republicans say they’ll focus less on changing the message than tweaking the messenger. Talk of beefing up the party’s ground game and social media activities dominated much of the discussion, as did “tone” – how ill-chosen words by a few candidates, including Mr. Romney, helped shade perceptions and weaken the party’s message.

read the whole post »

Posted by Bette Noir on 01/28/13 at 12:16 PM
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Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Song of Solomon 2:10-13
King James Version (KJV)

10 My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.

11 For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;

12 The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;

13 The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.

I know, I know that’s turtledove . . . but this works for me.  Because the Turtle bellowing almost non-stop, these days, is the gentleman from Kentucky, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Never, Never Land).  And, frankly, his bellowing is music to my ears because it signifies that something wonderful this way comes . . .

I’m willing to tolerate McConnell’s recent tantrums because . . . schadenfreude!  Mitch has had a remarkably awful time of it for the last four or five years—watching the first black man preside in the Oval Office and proceeding to Mitch’s Personal Worst—failing to render Obama a one-term president as he had vowed.  Because Mitch actually has an awful lot less clout than he thinks he does . . .

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Posted by Bette Noir on 01/23/13 at 10:52 AM
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