Needlenose

Just when you thought the Reactionaries hadn’t seen a tax cut they didn’t like, turns out they only like tax cuts that benefit the wealthy!  Although they were willing to shut down government and destroy the U.S. credit rating to keep the 1%’s taxes low, when it comes to Obama’s proposed cut to the payroll tax, something that would benefit workers…well, the Reactionaries aren’t so keen on that.  Turns out they have ‘conditions.’

Fucking hypocrites.

…and bring back miscegenation laws!!  Don’t believe ‘em when they say they dislike Obama for his politics and not his race – the Reactionaries won’t stop at sending racist photo-shopped pictures of Obama, they won’t be happy until they restore Jim Crow laws.

Tip of the ‘Nose to Film Critic Buddy

…is just a Reactionary phrase meaning “Don’t apply to them libruhl states.”  Case in point – concealed gun permits.

For the record, I don’t favor having the Government at any level act as a VC for technology companies.  If for one reason or another we have a strategic interest in having something happen – like decreasing our reliance on fossil fuels while increasing our usage of renewable energy – then I’d rather the Government take some specific steps around reducing demand through taxes on the undesirable and reduced taxes or mandates on usage to promote the desirable – with every intervention specifically time-bombed and diminished over time.

So I also look askance on Obama’s loan guarantees to Solyndra (and the socializing the failure thereof).

However, the real issue here is that the Chinese massively subsidize their solar industry and are dumping their panels below cost in the U.S. market.  How could Solyndra (or other non-Obama VC’d manufacturers) compete?  This is yet another industry that the heavy guns of the state-controlled Chinese companies have chosen  to wipe out (and are in the process of doing so).

The Reactionaries, of course, who would normally love to take an opportunity to criticize China, seem rather pleased to watch Solyndra fail as it makes their nemesis Obama look bad.  Same thinking that makes them delight in the still-crappy economy – they’d rather watch a failed America run by fellow Reactionaries than a successful one run by Liberals – positively Miltonian!

During their 8-year Reign of Error, you’d think there wasn’t a war the Republican’s didn’t like.   However, there was much gnashing of teeth when Obama decided to join with our NATO allies and blast Qaddafi’s planes and tanks from the skies.  Now that the Libyan Action is pretty much concluded, let’s do a compare and contrast of Regime Change that Republicans like versus  what they find unacceptable:

By any measure, the Libyan Regime Change seems more effective, but there’s not a peep of support from the Wrong Wing.  Conclusion?  Republicans only like the wars they start, Democratic wars be damned!

Consider yourselves warned.  You can only hide for another week.  Because next Friday, July 15, Sarah Palin’s hired hagiographic film The Undefeated (sadly, probably not based on the Iggy Pop song of the same name) will be released in multiple cities across the United States.

If the trailer (see video above) is any indication, the pseudo-documentary is chock full of the same unintentional self-parody that has made Palin herself so popular on the left side of the political spectrum.  Really, with the melodramatic opening music and silent titles proclaiming “DAUGHTER – WIFE – MOTHER – WARRIOR,” what viewer can help wondering if we’re about learn that Palin is secretly a programmed-from-birth assassin (sort of The Manchurian Candidate meets Hanna)?

You also have to love that first spoken words in the trailer are, “Like a marine, she runs toward the danger” — this about a woman whose most notorious achievement is quitting midway through her term as governor of Alaska to market herself and her family as reality-TV fodder, and who is too terrified of unscripted questions to appear in anything but the most staged public settings.

Meanwhile, in other faux-populism news, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Death to Medicare) — last seen being portrayed as a heroic, humble man of the people attending town halls in Wisconsin — got caught Wednesday night in a fancy Washington, D.C. restaurant sharing a couple of $350 bottles of wine with two “economists” (who may or may not turn out to be lobbyists).

Ryan later claimed not to have realized the wine was anywhere near that expensive, even though the waiter’s presentation of it was so elaborate that it drew the attention of nearby diners (who took photos to document Ryan’s high living).  Fortunately, one of the diners apparently confronted the congressman in time for him to pay for one of the bottles — even though he purportedly hadn’t ordered it himself — and thereby avoid trouble for accepting an illegal gift.

Kind of like those fancy clothes the Republican National Committee forced on Palin in the fall of 2008 without her knowledge, I guess.  I tell you, there’s danger everywhere when you’re a culture warrior fighting for the common folks.  But y’know, leaders like Ryan and Palin are so fearless they can’t help running toward it.

(Cross-posted at Firedoglake.)

…if it’s taken them so long to realize that weapons of mass destruction are readily available at gunshows across America.  Or maybe all the hoopla about ‘sleeper cells’ was total Bush bullshit, as I’ve suspected for years.  If there were any sleeper cells, and they had any brains, they’d do the next attack American style, driving Monster Trucks into Oil Refineries in Texas, with retrofitted fully automatics blazing.  At that point they may as well convert to Fundee Christianity and attack abortion clinics…then they’d have Palin and the rest of the Reactionaries rooting for them.

…only nobody qualified, what with all the intolerance, false witness, goods coveting, bigotry, sex abuse, murderous homophobia and murderous “holy” vigilantism amongst the Fundees.

Welcome to Vatican City, just keep your distance from our valuables...

Guest Post from Spy Buddy:

The Roman Catholic Church will be beatifying John Paul II, remember the Pope who turned a blind eye for too long with accusations of priests molesting children.

Here is a great opportunity for the Vatican recover some moral high ground… Robert Mugabe is headed to the Vatican City for the ceremony. Mugabe is the dictator of Zimbabwe. He has taken a beautiful self-sufficient country and made it a basket case.  He is responsible for Zimbabwe being Africa’s bread basket to now importing food; increasing hunger amongst the nation; impoverishing the middle class with the world’s highest inflation, randomly seizing people’s property and handing it over to his supporters, killing and torturing his political opponents, etc, etc.

While the Pope Benedict can never right the wrongs caused by the pedophile priests, he can signal that he will not tolerate and condone the presence of monsters like Mugabe by handing him over to the EU for prosecution.

Sorry Spy Buddy, I guess Pope Hitler Youth just doesn’t see what all the fuss is about Mugabe.

Self-delusion is a wonderful thing, but not if you’re a Black man working for Fox News. You think they want you on there, but in actuality you serve a slightly different purpose. Your presence is to justify that your employer can spout all manner of borderline to actual racist content without getting into trouble. Because, after all, they employ minorities.

Fox News’ “Of COURSE I’m not racist! I have plenty of Black friends” excuse got into a scrap with a college professor over his Fear of a Black Planet. The professor, Dr. Caroline Helmand, teaches at Occidental College. Their conversation on NPR began with her agreeing that Juan Williams shouldn’t have been fired by the news agency, even if she felt his comments on Muslims were bigoted. She further stated that “I think that if I were to say that I clutch my purse every time I walk by a black man that might resonate with a lot of Americans. It might be the truth but it’s a bigoted statement.”

Williams did what he is paid to do: He reassured his viewers by insulting me and other Black men. I spent several years in a Red Midwestern county, and several women clutched their purses when I walked by, even though I had no intention of robbing them. So Helmand’s statement is very well worded, and Williams could have run with that and made some valid points about profiling. He could have even worked his actual statement into that, making for an educated discussion from a Black perspective on Fox. Instead, he made a DIRECT pander to the predominantly White audience who watches Fox News.

First, he made a soothing “it’s perfectly OK to think like this, Fox viewers” blanket statement. He said “Let me just tell you, with the amount of black on black crime in America, I get nervous and I’m a black man.” So, every Black man scares Williams, even Steve Urkel and Buppies. After Helmand challenged him again, Williams dug in his heels: “I’m the father of black young men and I’m saying that if you saw a couple guys walking around looking like thugs down the street late at night, you’re saying ‘Oh, I’m not going to think it through.’ Caroline, I think you are way off base.”

Bullshit.

Let’s dismantle Williams’ bass-ackwards statement. Suppose those “couple guys walking around looking like thugs down the street late at night” were Williams’ KIDS. I’m sure they are very nice, respectable young men, but Williams’ statement paints them as potential thugs simply by inclusion. What is the description of a “thug?” To many people, the definition of a thug is “young, Black men.” Williams’ kids, to use the classic racial profiling excuse, “fit the description.” Would Williams be understanding if his children came to him, as I have more than once to my parents, to describe an upsetting racial profiling incident? With my bald head, stern look and—hell, my skin color—I look like a “thug” to some people. I suppose by Williams’ rationale I should mug the shit out of you. Then, since I am college-educated, I can give you a calculus lesson as you crawl down the sidewalk. Calculus is a lot more painful than mugging–trust me.

Williams does what the rest of the Fox pundits do: He blatantly disavows that his statements could offend. They always act stunned when someone calls them on the potential offense, knowing damn well what they are doing. This is cowardice. I state right now that what I am saying in this piece may offend you. I don’t give a shit, but at least I’ve given you the respect of acknowledging that your offense could exist. I can hear you now: In his comedy routine, Chris Rock made a statement similar to Williams’, and he won the Emmy for it! What liberal nonsense! Rock did indeed make this statement, but he surrounded it by 10 minutes of differentiating and absolving Black men who are NOT thugs. And Chris Rock is a COMEDIAN, not a news anchor. Actually, Rock used much stronger language than “thug,” and while Williams didn’t use that particular word, I’m sure Roger Ailes wouldn’t mind if he did.

Sadly, this isn’t the thing that pisses me off most about Williams’ subbing on the O’Reilly Factor. He missed a primo opportunity to ask for some motherfuckin’ iced tea. I would have. That is my biggest disappointment with this episode.