The Online Lunchpail ™

Congress gets cost-of-living increase; Social Security doesn't

2009-12-09T15:32:00.004-05:00

I don't know if I've touched on this yet or not.

I may have speculated that Congress might find a way to give itself a pay raise even though Social Security and military benefits don't get a cost-of-living increase this year.

Or I might have just assumed that members of Congress were going to have to get by on a measly $174,000 a year again.

Well, guess what?

Congress is now being more blatant than ever in giving itself a pay raise it doesn't deserve.

Lawmakers have already decided that Americans who get Social Security, disability, or military benefits don't get a cost-of-living raise for the next year - citing a lack of inflation. Yet these same legislators are giving themselves a cost-of-living pay raise of $4,700 - because of inflation.

So now it's "inflation for me, not for thee"?

What a bunch of parasites Congress is. They starve Grandma so they can pay themselves thousands more a year.

You know what I'd like to see happen? Since the Kelo v. New London ruling let the government swipe property to be given to private parties, I'd like to see the states take this extra $4,700 from each member of Congress and distribute it among recipients of Social Security and other benefits. That would serve Congress right.

Furthermore, for Congress to give itself any pay raise before its term is up is unconstitutional. Yet they've been doing it for years, and nobody reins them in. This began under the corrupt Republican congressional leadership of the '90s (even after they assailed the Democrats for accepting pay increases while it was still legal).

Feelings...Nothing more than feelings... ('Sesame Street' Wednesday)

2009-12-09T14:55:00.002-05:00

Since it's Wednesday, it's time to get Sessified!

Because Muppets are mere pieces of felt, they have no feelings. So one many ridicule them without worrying about offending them. Like when we poked fun at Bert because he wanted his soft little blanket.

However, some Muppets think they have feelings. Like the blue, mustachioed Anything Muppet who frequently encounters an incompetent Grover being employed at various service occupations.

Imagine the poor guy's frustration when he finds ol' Groves working as a salesman at a clothing store where he tries to buy a suit. This attempted purchase has hilarious results:

This reminds me of the time I tried to get peppers on my nachos at a festival, and they told me they were out of them - even though they had a whole tub of "display peppers" staring down at them.

The mannequin in this sketch might not have any feelings, but neither does the customer - because he's made of felt!

So why should he be so embarrassed when Grover strips him down to his bra and panties? (Or is that a tutu?)

And how is it that Grover can botch so many jobs and not get fired, while it's impossible for so many competent people to find any work at all these days?

Correction Connection: effects of Sudafed crackdown

2009-12-09T14:21:00.001-05:00

When the media fails to question what are obvious falsehoods, it's hard for me to say it isn't complicit in spreading them.

An effort by the far-right drug warriors to make Kentucky the second U.S. state - after Oregon - to require a prescription just to buy Sudafed is under way. This would violate federal law, of course, because the federal government defines this drug as over-the-counter.

(Although Oregon ranked high on the economic freedom index, that didn't take its draconian drug laws into account.)

Predictably, the drug warriors are spreading made-up propaganda in an attempt to justify this crackdown (which would hurt only innocent people). Some nobody who is leading the effort said meth labs plummeted in Oregon after that state began requiring a prescription for over-the-counter allergy drugs.

But that is categorically false.

Meth labs increased after the new law. I don't know where the Kentucky drug warriors are getting their data from, but whoever they got it from told an outright lie.

Ironically, the Kentucky wingnuts admit that other draconian measures have failed - just as we predicted. So they're using this failure as an excuse for more stringent measures.

It's a vicious cycle: When these measures fail, what will they try next?

When I see lies by drug warriors, I will call them out.

Georgia GOPer steps down over scandal

2009-12-08T16:40:00.002-05:00

Glenn Richardson is the House Speaker for the state of Georgia. Big "family values" Republican.

Because Richardson hates gays, he was a key supporter of anti-gay legislation. He also supports a hefty sales tax hike. At the same time, however, Richardson said laws won't pass under his watch unless it shrinks government.

How hypocritical can you get? He claims to support smaller government while also supporting higher taxes and more restrictions on private personal conduct? He's as big government as you can get.

Now Richardson is stepping down from his post because of an alleged affair with a lobbyist.

One writer observed that the GOP "could have their whole legislative agenda, not to mention their leadership, done in by a sex scandal." Perish the thought.

Richardson has been accused of having an affair with a utility company lobbyist at the same time he cosponsored a bill to finance a pipeline for the company.

Republican "family values" at work, folks.

(Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-georgia-speaker4-2009dec04,0,89835.story)

News site says rate hike "saves" money

2009-12-08T16:15:00.003-05:00

Even though the Kentucky Post exists only in online form now, it's still surprisingly adroit at trying to put a happy face on corporate greed.

Regarding Duke Energy's latest greed-driven rate hike, the Post has run a headline blaring, "Kentucky Duke Customers To Save $4.4M."

Hiking utility rates "saves" people money??? Seriously, that's what the headline claims - even though the article itself doesn't even suggest this.

The Post's apparent rationale for saying that the hike "saves" money is that the increase is actually less than what Duke originally wanted. But there shouldn't even be ANY increase. Especially after yet another unexplained mass power outage in the region last night.

Here's the article:

http://www.kypost.com/news/local/story/Kentucky-Duke-Customers-To-Save-4-4M/MD6AIFj8DkmQh1lUDjxHlQ.cspx

Nothing in the article suggests any savings, as the article is about a rate increase - not a decrease. So the headline is downright wrong.

Why is the Kentucky Attorney General even allowing any rate hike at all, after Duke already exploited the Blackout of '08 to win an increase?

GOP leader convicted of corruption

2009-12-08T15:56:00.002-05:00

Joseph Bruno is the former Republican leader of the New York Senate.

The longtime legislator has now been convicted on 2 counts at his federal corruption trial. Bruno had been accused of accepting millions of dollars from people seeking business with the state. One of the charges he was convicted of dealt with a businessman who paid him $80,000 for a "virtually worthless" horse.

Sentencing for the disgraced politician looms in March.

It's hard for me to shed any tears over Joe Bruno's conviction. He was face-deep in the strange "soak-the-poor" fetish of the '90s.

Nonetheless, what do right-wing commenters on news sites say about this scandal? One said, "This is why we need to vote out the Democrats in 2010." Uh, Bruno is a Republican, you moron.

(Source: http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20091207/NEWS01/91207038/Bruno-found-guilty-on-2-of-8-charges)

Another GOP big shot accused of assault

2009-12-08T15:27:00.001-05:00

Republican politicians being involved in assault incidents is getting to be an everyday occurrence lately.

Meet Rod "Green Balloons" Jetton. Jetton, a Republican, is the former Missouri House Speaker.

Tempting as though it may be, this is not the time to lament the fact that Missouri in recent years has had one of the most corrupt state legislatures in America. I'm sure I've dealt with that before.

Now Jetton has been charged with felony assault following a woman's claim that he struck her in the face and choked her. Jetton may face 7 years in prison.

The woman also claims that Jetton poured her a glass of wine, and then she kept fading in and out of consciousness throughout the evening.

(Source: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_FORMER_SPEAKER_ASSAULT_MOOL-?SITE=MOCOD&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT)

GOP now places third in congressional poll

2009-12-08T14:31:00.001-05:00

So much for all this bluster about the Republicans retaking Congress, huh?

A new Rasmussen poll says the Republicans are now in third place in a generic congressional ballot. Yes, I said T-H-I-R-D. This poll says the GOP is now behind a hypothetical "tea party" that places second. Both the GOP and the "tea party" trail the Democrats badly.

What exactly is the Republicans' remaining base of support then? This is like that recent congressional election in upstate New York being replicated on a national scale. And we all know how that turned out (i.e., not good for the Republicans).

What's particularly downbeat for the Republicans is that Rasmussen has generally been an outlier that has shown significantly more GOP support than other pollsters.

No Republican Revolution in 2010, methinks.

Power company to impose yet another rate hike

2009-12-07T16:17:00.002-05:00

The Kentucky Attorney General's office has just agreed to let Duke Energy increase natural gas delivery rates - again - this time by 10%.

Because Duke wanted the increase, you see. And if a power company wants something in Kentucky, they get it.

This still faces approval from Kentucky utility regulators - but we all know that's one rubber stamp that never wears out, unfortunately.

Week 17 of POOP

2009-12-07T15:58:00.002-05:00

Google's post removal feature remains down after many weeks.

Meanwhile, Google's help forum is being overrun by spam about "Bangalore escorts." None of this spam is being cleared away - because Google doesn't read its own help forum.

Right-wing former congressman faces assault charge

2009-12-07T15:48:00.001-05:00

It would be hard for me to shed any tears if this dickhead rots in the slammer.

Meet Chip Pickering, far-right former congressman from Mississippi. Back when he was a staffer for Trent Lott, Pickering helped write the fascist Telecommunications Act of 1996 - which was a bailout for right-wing talk radio and an attempt to censor Internet free speech.

Now Pickering is accused of starting a fight at a kids' soccer game.

Authorities say Pickering attacked the coach at the game this past weekend. The coach says Pickering yelled at him and yanked him from his car - forcing bystanders to separate the two.

Now the former lawmaker faces possible assault charges.

Chip Pickering even looks like a big bully in his photo. Bullying pretty much sums up what the right wing has become.

(Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-us-ex-congressman-scuffle,0,7534771.story)

Wingnuts let foreign governments remove Obama

2009-12-07T14:57:00.000-05:00

In a full-page ad in the far-right Washington Times, the wingnut brain trust has introduced one of its stupidest memes in years.

Now that they've apparently given up trying to "prove" President Obama is a Kenyan citizen, their latest argument is that he's actually British. They cite a British law that gives British citizenship to people who have a parent who is a British subject. Wingnuts argue that because Kenya was a colony of the U.K., this law applies to Obama even though he was born in America.

Um, no.

American laws say Obama is a U.S. citizen. It doesn't matter what Britain's laws say, because Obama isn't a British resident - and never was. The U.K. law that the wingnuts cited doesn't apply when someone has never lived in Britain and is a citizen of a country other than Britain.

But here's the real gauge of wingnut stupidity: If this British citizenship law applied to Obama, that means any country in the world could remove the President of the United States from office simply by granting them citizenship.

Well, that means New America could have just removed Bush from power by making him a citizen. Gotcha there, conservos!

ABC acknowledges stimulus success

2009-12-07T14:26:00.001-05:00

Despite Congress's deliberate and inexcusable refusal to pass health care reform, the year has had one major legislative highlight: the Obama administration's economic stimulus program.

I never doubted the success of the stimulus, and now even ABC is acknowledging it:

This isn't much comfort to the many who remain unemployed due to the Bush recession and the serial failures of the New Economy. But creating and saving some jobs is better than allowing things to just get worse.

We need to get the message out: By and large, the stimulus worked. And the Republicans were nearly unified in opposing it. We need to spread this message not because of partisanship, but because it's a fact.

It's particularly remarkable that ABC would even report it. One blogger said that the ABC report "was surprising coming from Charlie Gibson given the rightward slant ABC news has."

IRS harassing working-class families?

2009-12-06T21:29:00.008-05:00

A host of major corporations haven't paid federal taxes since 1998. Loads of wealthy individuals and businesses abuse offshore tax shelters to evade American tax laws.

You'd think the IRS would bust them like it's going of style. But welcome to the new IRS - the IRS that emerged under Bush.

This piece in the Seattle Times says the new IRS - instead of auditing wealthy corporations - audits the poor and working class:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/dannywestneat/2010435946_danny06.html

You read that right: The IRS is going after people who make very little money, using the argument that nobody can make so little money and survive. The IRS assumes they must be working off the books.

Huh? So the IRS thinks anyone who lives below the poverty line is just faking it?

Following these audits, the IRS is charging the working poor back taxes, claiming they owe taxes on money they never made.

What's worse is that each audit costs the IRS as much money as it squeezes out of these working families. So the government isn't even bringing in any more net revenue. This proves the whole thing is about harassment for its own sake.

How did this bullshit start?

The Seattle Times piece points out a little factoid that's long been ignored: The Republicans have called tax credits for the working poor a form of "backdoor welfare" (even though it's not welfare at all). When the Republicans controlled Congress and the White House several years ago, they directed the IRS to step up audits of working families who claimed this credit.

Following this move, those who claimed this credit were over twice as likely as other taxpayers to be audited.

This, my friends, is fascism.

Auditing the poor and working class is designed to remind them of their status and show who's in charge.

Public officials responsible for this directive to the IRS need to be punished.

If tax credits for working families are "backdoor welfare" for the poor, then the Right's capital gains tax cut is "backdoor welfare" for the rich.

A great article about welfare "reform"!

2009-12-06T13:56:00.001-05:00

An excellent op-ed by Peter Edelman and Barbara Ehrenreich about the failures of welfare "reform" appeared in the Washington Post today:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/04/AR2009120402604.html

The 1996 welfare "reform" law (part of the right-wing "soak-the-poor" showboat of the era) has generally escaped criticism since it passed. But now the Bush recession is showing how rotten it truly is, as more and more Americans can't get assistance when they desperately need it.

Can't the states opt out like they're trying to do with health care reform? Or are our state legislators such wusses that they just go along with welfare "reform" no matter how much it hurts their constituents?

What a shortsighted experiment welfare "reform" turned out to be. Did its congressional supporters actually not account for trends like downsizing and outsourcing? Or did they just not care? I think I can guess.

Baseball bubblin' (Bubble Gum Weekend)

2009-12-05T13:05:00.000-05:00

Since it's the middle of December, I know you want to hear about baseball, don't you?

I know you do as long as bubble gum is mentioned as well.

Usually this feature profiles an old gum commercial, but this time we're profiling a music video. After all, since music videos are promotional, they're actually ads - no matter how artful they are.

Back in 1986, the New York Mets played the Boston Red Sox in the World Series. Since MTV is based in New York (and thinks the rest of the country lives in log cabins and doesn't get cable), it regularly aired a music video for a song (by a recording artist whose name has been lost to history) titled "Let's Go Mets!".

The video included numerous Mets players, fans, and New York luminaries such as then-Mayor Ed Koch.

Central to this video was bubble gum. The video featured at least 3 instances of Mets players bubbling. In one instance, an unidentified player attempts to bubble and sing at the same time - forcing him to eject his gum out of his mouth and squarely onto the field:

The Mets went on to win the World Series. And it's all because players bubbled in that video!

Why take steroids when you can just chew bubble gum?

More election fraud found in Honduras

2009-12-04T16:42:00.000-05:00

And Jim DeMint calls this a legitimate election?

Analysts have now discovered more outright rigging of Sunday's presidential election in Honduras.

The right-wing dictatorship there claimed voter turnout of 61%. That turned out to be a lie. There's also evidence that some voters cast multiple votes.

So much for Honduras joining the "league of democracies" that John McCain kept talking about, huh?

(Source: http://insidecostarica.com/dailynews/2009/december/02/centam-09120201.htm)

Man arrested for "trespassing" on his own property

2009-12-04T16:05:00.001-05:00

Did NKU relocate to Wisconsin?

This is the story of a man in Superior, Wisconsin, who owns a small piece of land. On Wednesday, he tried to hunt deer on his own land when he noticed a pipeline crew from Enbridge Energy Partners on his property.

Enbridge is an oil and gas corporation known for its repeated fuel spills. In 2007, Enbridge's Wisconsin pipeline spilled 50,000 gallons of bubblin' crude onto a farm. The company has had to pay over $1,000,000 to the state for 545 separate environmental violations.

When the man in Superior saw the crew on his property, he politely asked them to leave. (After Enbridge destroyed a farm, who could blame him?) Even if Enbridge had an easement, the company was breaking the easement terms.

Shortly thereafter, an officer from the sheriff's department showed up and arrested the property owner for "trespassing" - even though it was his own property.

So now a powerful energy corporation can just claim someone else's property as theirs? And they can deputize law enforcement to carry out their demands?

Is it a corporate command state yet?

(Source: http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/153801)

Hahaha! Hostettler to challenge Bayh!

2009-12-04T14:58:00.001-05:00

Look at this dumb loser!

John Hostettler is a right-wing former congressman from Indiana first elected in the 1994 fascism wave. He was known for his anti-Semitic remarks and for trying to carry a loaded pistol on his carry-on bag on a flight to Washington. When Hostettler refused to pay the court costs that arose from that incident, a judge issued an arrest warrant for him. Then Hostettler said courts don't have to be obeyed because they "have no Army or Navy."

The Evansville congressman was defeated in an uproarious landslide in 2006.

But Hostettler isn't done making a fool of himself yet! Now he's announced that he's running for Senate next year against Democrat Evan Bayh.

If the Republicans had any hope at all of defeating Bayh, Hostettler damn sure won't be the person to pull it off. They might as well just nominate Disaster Daniels.

In the meantime, I'll be rooting for the Green Party's candidate.

(Source: http://realclearpolitics.blogs.time.com/2009/12/03/hostettler-to-challenge-bayh)

The Conservative Fool Of The Day is...Russell Wiseman!

2009-12-04T14:22:00.003-05:00

This is hilarious!

I rolled on the floor in laughter when I saw this story!

Russell Wiseman is the Republican mayor of Arlington, Tennessee. And he must really love his animated Peanuts specials, judging by what he said recently.

Wiseman says that President Obama scheduled his Afghanistan speech just so the annual airing of 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' would have to be delayed.

But why??? What interest would Obama have in delaying it???

Wiseman explained it all on his Facebook page. Wiseman declared, "Ok, so, this is total crap, we sit the kids down to watch 'The Charlie Brown Christmas Special' and our muslim president is there, what a load.....try to convince me that wasn't done on purpose. Ask the man if he believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and he will give you a 10 minute disertation about it....w...hen the answer should simply be 'yes'...." (The spelling and capitalization errors are all Wiseman's, not mine.)

Wiseman went on to write, "you obama people need to move to a muslim country...oh wait, that's America....pitiful."

Wiseman then moved on from this idiotic meme and assailed poor people for voting. He wrote, "you know, our forefathers had it written in the original Constitution that ONLY property owners could vote, if that has stayed in there, things would be different........"

The Constitution never said that, you idiot. In fact, many of the Founding Fathers explicitly opposed such a requirement.

A mayor of an American community in 2009 thinks you should have to own property to be allowed to vote? That right there should be cause for a recall drive against Wiseman. Public officials swear to uphold the Constitution. It's unconstitutional to deny the right to vote on the basis of not owning property.

Back to the original point: Does the mayor of Arlington, Tennessee, truly think the President deliberately scheduled his speech to conflict with 'A Charlie Brown Christmas'? And does he really think this makes the President a Muslim?

Good grief!

(Source: http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/dec/04/mayor-fires-at-obama-online)

Former Sen. Paula Hawkins dies

2009-12-04T13:43:00.001-05:00

Former Sen. Paula Hawkins, a Republican from Florida, died yesterday at the age of 82.

Hawkins was elected in the GOP wave of 1980 and built a reputation as an ultraconservative (at least by '80s standards). This culminated in her anti-music crusade of the mid-'80s.

Hawkins was defeated handily by Bob Graham in 1986.

Settlement vindicates ACORN

2009-12-03T22:26:00.003-05:00

What happens when a court says ACORN is right?

Wingnuts' heads explode, that's what.

ACORN filed a suit several years ago in Ohio about the state's refusal to implement a law to register more voters. This was filed during the reign of Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell - a Republican notable for presiding over irregularities in the 2004 election.

Now this case has finally been settled, as the state has agreed to implement the law. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 required family service offices to make sure people who received aid got a chance to register to vote. Now this settlement means Ohio will put this law into force.

What? You mean Ohio ignored this law for 16 years?

Yes, that's exactly what it means.

This follows settlement of a similar suit in Missouri regarding that state's refusal to implement the law. Now there's similar suits in Indiana and New Mexico, because those states won't follow the law either.

Why hasn't someone been sent to jail over this? Why do so many states think they can just ignore the law outright?

(Source: http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/11/acorn_suit_over_voter_registra.html)

'Andy Griffith Show' takes on big banks?

2009-12-03T15:26:00.002-05:00

For years, I've heard rumors that 'The Andy Griffith Show' once featured a hilarious episode about a spoiled child who throws tantrums every time he doesn't get his way.

This series was before my time, so I don't claim to be an expert on it. But I was hoping that this episode - if it did exist - would turn up someday on YouTube.

Well, guess what? I got my wish!

For the record, this 1963 episode is one of several 'Andy Griffith Show' installments that is now in the public domain, thanks to a clerical error. So its appearance on YouTube is perfectly legal. This is particularly satisfying because some fans of the show consider this the best episode ever.

When I found this episode on YouTube, the spoiled brat who moves into Mayberry reminded me so much of some of the bullies at my high school. He went through life expecting something for nothing, and his appearance culminated in an embarrassing shitfit.

Then I figured this episode could also be used as an allegory for the culture of privilege that defines the current right-wing Tea Parties or for big banks that demand free money in the form of bailouts.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

After viewing this installment, there's a lesson to be learned for me too. I feel like Opie when he looks on in awe during the new kid's meltdown at the police station. Opie learns that being so spoiled is actually the new kid's major weakness.

I guess the main lesson for me is that I've emerged as a better person than the big banks for not being so spoiled. Look at the way the little crybaby in this show behaves. Do I really want to be like him?

If the big banks only knew that they looked like the spoiled brat in that episode when they demand taxpayer-funded bailouts.

Dumb right-wing quote of the day

2009-12-03T14:46:00.001-05:00

This entry isn't primarily about the fact that the 2 major parties (assuming the Republicans are even still major) have become nearly identical in their autocratic approach to the failed War on Drugs.

Now Missouri is once again trying to force people to get a prescription just to buy over-the-counter allergy drugs - even though federal law says no prescription is needed.

A Republican cosponsor of this bipartisan bill made a mind-boggling statement in a vain attempt to justify the legislation. State Rep. Scott Lipke said, "If you're one of the few people who have to have pseudoephedrine, then it may be just as simple as calling your doctor for a prescription."

You're hilarious, Scott, you know that?

What about the 50,000,000 Americans who can't even get a doctor, Scott? Ever think of that, you idiot?

I guess it's not so hilarious after all.

The drug industry, incidentally, is all for this ongoing war against their own product. The industry has done nothing to fight it. I guess it's because they think they can charge more for the drug if it's by prescription.

(Source: http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2009/12/anti-smurfing_bill_filed_by_state_reps.php)

Comcast/NBC deal won't be blocked? Why the hell not???

2009-12-03T14:12:00.004-05:00

A big test of the Obama administration is whether it has the gumption to block Comcast's purchase of the controlling shares of NBC (along with NBC's cable channels and movie studios).

Indeed, it's a big test of any recent administration. Of course, if Bush was still in power, we could just dismiss any chance that it might be blocked, because Bush represented everything corporate. But we have a right to expect better.

Now it's been reported that Comcast - the Wal-Mart of the cable TV industry - would have to accept stringent antitrust conditions if regulators approve its takeover of NBC. But, according to the AP, "federal regulators probably won't block a deal outright on anticompetitive grounds."

Why in the celery green fuckola not?

What's the purpose in having regulators if they're not going to block the deal?

We're not even allowed to buy Sudafed without signing a log, yet Comcast can buy NBC unimpeded?

Granted, the FCC is - by law - headed by a bipartisan group of commissioners. That's of little comfort when the only 2 parties represented are the Republicans and the Democrats, which have nearly merged in their support of corporatism. If the FCC is to represent the country's real partisan split, it should have a fair share of independents or Greens.

The FCC, the FTC, and the Justice Department need to block the Comcast/NBC deal completely. If they don't, the states should - perhaps by forcing Comcast to pull out of the cable business.

I wouldn't blame Channel 5 in the least bit if it cancels its NBC affiliation because of this. Let one of the LPTV stations pick up NBC. A station can probably get more viewers by showing old '70s reruns than by showing NBC.

A media that has a "diversity of voices" is vital to a democratic republic. Concentration of the media has been detrimental to the free flow of ideas.

(Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5icvi8L5K4PM31D5eF-DdXTJLfdzAD9CBH1781)