The Art of the (Book) Deal

I'm shocked and horrified at the commercial rush-to-print (and -profit) from books written by fools and idiots by big, well-known publishing houses:

Sarah Palin got a book deal.
John Yoo got a book deal.
Jason Mattera will get a book deal.
The Coultergeist gets book deals.
The Maulkin gets book deals.

I have lost all respect for the publishing industry, save very few exceptions. I suppose it's better for us to see what they're thinking by reading their spew of hate and lies, but it's really hard to comprehend how well hate pays.

The Real Reason for GOP Sen. Chris Buttar's Proposal to Eliminate 12th Grade

Senior year...twelfth grade. A unique school year that can be filled with a plethora of meaningful choices: classes that supply needed high school credits or diverse electives, opportunities to earn college credits, and important seasoning and maturity-building that takes most adolescents up to or across the milestone 18th birthday. Why has this staple of K-12 education suddenly come under attack from Utah's GOP Senator Chris Buttars?

[bullshit on]
Buttars asserts that Utah's budget deficit of $700m would be positively impacted by canceling the last year of high school. His supporters cite "senior-itis", "goofing off" and an amorphous reference to "being done in the junior year" as sufficient to take this educational and social staple away from Utah's children. The $60m savings generated by this deletion - which would account for less that 10% of the budget gap - apparently solves the budget problem. Yay! I love when a less-than-10% solution magically becomes a 100% solution! That's, like, so freakin' awesome...now there's some math I can get behind. Reminds me of how 41 is more than 59...
[bullshit off]

But I digress. Here's the real reason Chris Buttars and his educational death panel want to kill senior year: to increase ignorance in Utah's general constituency. No other reason. Denying access to education is the quickest route to ensuring that people are controllable, tractable, and will believe whatever you tell them. Increasing a group's ignorance positively correlates to the amount of influence and control a governing body can maintain over that group.

Is the problem "senior year"? No. If programs aren't building enough practical value into the senior year, fix the problem by building more value into the senior year! Duh. If students don't need senior year because they have enough credits to graduate, then let them graduate early! Duh. If students don't need an academic senior year because they're fully enrolled in a vocational program, then let them do the whole class day at the vocational facility instead of busing back and forth for the half-day! Duh. If students ready to work part-time while finishing a few necessary credits, let them go to school half-day and work part-time! Duh.

Republican representatives tend to offer the same tired, predictable, and inefficient solutions to every problem. Children and senior citizens are ALWAYS the first to get screwed over in a budget crunch. Not only should the GOP Stepford-drone Buttars not be allowed to further damage Utah's educational policy, he should be censured and punished for suggesting it. Educational programs need to be strengthened, not weakened: additional academic rigor, increased opportunity to earn college credits, and additional preparedness for life and career after high school are vitally important to the strength and success of our society but receive little attention or support because of funding.

We, as a nation, seem to pull the 180 degree U-turn so much more than necessary lately, and so many of these disgraceful U-turns originate within the Republican (or, Republican't) party. Maybe Utah's legislators could offer to work for free for a few years; that would positively impact the budget wouldn't it? Worried that legislators "working for free" would get you exactly what you paid for...nothing? Well, seems to me that Utah's getting a whole lot of "nothing" from the well-paid Buttars already...

Michele Bachmann's Private Prayercast

*overheard at Michele Bachmann's house*

Dear Lord,

First, I want to apologize for being a hypocrite. Even though I'm a government official I still want to ignore that little thingy-dingy about the separation of church and state and make everyone I know submit to Your benevolent tyranny. I want our government to work for only those people who do exactly what I say...uh, I mean YOU say, oh Lord. Again, Lord, I beg Your forgiveness for my hypocrisy.

Next, I ask Your divine intervention in helping me control my insanity. I know You have provided the answer for that problem in the form of pharmaceuticals which I have willfully refused, and I ask Your forgiveness for that as well. If necessary, Lord, force those pills down my throat so that I might stop being a total ass in Congress, on television and on the Internets.

Finally, Lord, help me to get back from the end of myself. Unlike the Universe, the endlessness of which You created in six days, there is an end to me and I appear to be "there". All there, Lord. I'm so all-there I missed the big yellow sign that said "Caution! Go Back! You're Almost At the End of Yourself!" I ask Your help in finding my way back to the beginning of me.

Gotta go, Lord. My husband just called me to fulfill my wifely duties, and I must submit. I ask all of this in Thy name...amen.

WATCH: Wielding Gavel, Franken Shuts Lieberman Up

Al Franken is THE BEST! I heart Al Franken!
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Anita Dunn: Fox News An Outlet For GOP Propaganda

It's about time the administration became more assertive about the absolute hurricane of bullshit thrown about by the "GOP" and some of its talking bobbleheads.
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In Glenn We Trust?

No wonder there was an economic downturn.

Conservatives Revel In Obama's Olympic Bid Failure

What a bunch of anti-American doofs these conservatives are! So much for national pride...so much for prosperity....and so much for staying current with Olympic news. Rio has been the favored site for a long time; the Chicago pitch was a shot in the dark at best. Epic fail for "Americans for Prosperity" - like every Republican't out there, the only prosperity they're concerned with is their own. Typical.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Job Seekers Exceed Openings By Record Ratio: 6:1

I'm not sure why a fact like this is "breaking news". Of course unemployment is still high, and it will probably get higher. All the "stimuli" packages, from both the previous and current administration are only temporary measures intended to forestall calamity. Banks must lend money, and they aren't, despite the massive infusion of cash from which they benefited. Insurance companies must lower premiums, which they aren't, despite the massive infusion of cash and protections from which they benefited. Banks and insurance companies (along with energy companies) are somehow managing to post huge profits which are siphoned off into a select group of administrative wage packages. Go figure.



The U.S. needs to begin making things again. Manufacturing needed goods and selling them at home and abroad. Not transferring the cigarette industry to other countries...not buying back cheap plastic crap that was made in China or India because they have no labor or environmental laws and will exploit their people and their resources to make that cheap plastic crap and sell it back to us for a penny profit...the U.S. needs to get some dignity. And manufactur­ing/agricu­lture/serv­ice jobs that pay a living wage.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

The Demise of Civility and Intelligence: New Forefront of Domestic Terrorism

Allow me to define my terms:

Ignorance - knowing a fact yet stubbornly refusing to acknowledge it, sometimes to the point where you say the opposite of what you know to be true.

Rudeness - bad manners. If you don't know what "manners" are, you're not ready to read this post. Come back after you have m-w.com'd "manners".

Ignorance and rudeness are now commonplace. Flailin' Palin's use of the phrase 'death panels' is an excellent example of ignorance. Joe "I'm Running for Governor of South Carolina, You Wait and See!" Wilson's shout-out of "You lie!" during the President's address is an excellent example of rudeness. Clearly my winky-girl Sarah can't read. We've known that for a while, though, haven't we? And Joe is ... well ... a-standin' up fer Amurikens, right? Right? Or did he have a flashback to 3rd grade when Sue Whitford told the teacher he copied off her spelling test? Hmmm...

In the past, ignorance and rudeness earned ostracism. Now, they earn campaign contributions (I can't wait for Flailin' Pa1in to run for something besides the bathroom!) and publicity. Seriously? Can't we do better than this?

GOP Rep Joe Wilson Yells Out "Lie" During Obama Health Care Speech To Congress (VIDEO)

Joe Wilson: assclown.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Health Insurance Reform

The current "debate" is not about health care. Don't be fooled. The government can do little to affect surgical procedures, types of bandages, and protocols for sprained ankles. Science and research are the venues that affect health care. The current "debate" is about health insurance. Health insurance is the broken spoke in the wheel of health care, siphoning cash from a system that should pretty much be ruled by science and the intricate dance of supply and demand.

Health insurance drains away so much cash that becoming an insurance executive is like winning the lottery. Really. Literally, not figuratively. The sucking quagmire of insurance - from the premiums charged to the salaries paid - strip doctors of their duty to prescribe treatments and force financial ruin on the backs of the mostly middle-class people who struggle to buy policies and pay their bills.

Again, don't be fooled. Health insurance reform is needed; it may be costly, but the cost of doing nothing will exceed our ability to pay when the "premium notice" comes due.

Traveling & Hungry & Anything Will Help

So I'm making the rounds and running my errands, and as I leave the long driveway of that insufferable Wa1-mart (only because it shares a driveway with Lowe's and that's where my errand was) I see this young woman sitting by the side of the drive with a pile of bags, a little scruffy dog, and a sign inscribed with the words in this title. I had to squint to make out the words because they were handwritten, obviously, but squished and uneven too. She could see I was trying to read the sign and she sat very still.

There are cars behind me and I feel pressured to drive on before I've finished decoding the sign. As I drive past I get a clearer view and make out all the words and see her state and glimpse the dog and watch her face get just a little sad as I pull away. Just the tiniest bit of sad. I'm swept up onto the highway where I immediately start crying.

Dunno.

So I cry and drive around the block and find all the change in my purse and in the car and I find all the folding money I have on me - which isn't much - and I swing around into the hell that is Wa1-mart once more and drive the long drive up to where she sits. I can see that she's picking up her bags and untethering the little scruffy dog. What she's being most careful with is a half a bag of Beneful dog food, so of course I begin crying again right on cue. I make myself stop the waterworks and pull up beside her.

She saw me and smiled. Small, fleeting, barely there and gone as quickly as her sadness. I was quite close and I waved her over to the open window on the passenger's side and first gave her all the change, which she placed in the pocket of a very large overcoat, and then gave her the folding money which was promptly tucked in beside the change. I looked her in the eyes - a very striking shade of blue - and saw all the cuts on her face and the calm sadness in the air and told her to take care. She didn't look away from my eyes when she thanked me.

I don't care what she spends the money on. Whatever brought her to the place where she's sitting by the side of the road on a rainy August afternoon with her little scruffy dog and a sign that says Traveling & Hungry & Anything Will Help is far more than I've ever had to deal with. She has needs I will never know.

I stopped.

Dear Joe Scarborough:

Yeah I saw you try, very patiently, to get the black guest to admit that your imaginary Possibility #5 was viable in the Gates incident - that NO ONE was at fault. You and Mika are so desperate to absolve all white people from having a racial BASIS, not even a bias but a BASIS, that you're willing to let Professor Gates "off the hook" too.

How very generous of your narcissism.

It is not possible to have a completely neutral schema. Our eyes, wired by our biology, SEE COLOR and we have been taught to react certain ways to it, whether those ways are positive, negative, or outcome-neutral. Further, race DOES enter into virtually every aspect of this culture because of the slave ships that brought African slaves here in the 1600's.

Did I sail the ships? Nope. Do I have to live with the consequences of that deleterious act? Yup.

Should my white sons be shamed and scolded because the white men who took this continent away from indigenous Americans chose to enslave Africans to build it? Nope. Should my white sons be aware that all of that occurred so they can make damn sure it never happens again? Yup.

Is every person a racist? Nope. Does everyone have a racial bias? Nope, and fewer and fewer of those biases end in terribly negative consequences.

Does everyone have a racial basis? Yup, and as much as you, Joe, would like to teach Mika how to handle "her journalistic self" so that she can coerce guests into agreeing with your whitewashed version/vision of America, it won't happen. Too many of your guests, especially your favored guests, have proven your position invalid. Please let go, Joe, and move on. Lean more to the information side of The Force, and leave the comedy to Stewart and Colbert.

Barack Obama: The Perfect Storm of WTF

Barack Obama is confusing the hell out of America, and here's why.

He's half African - the straight from Kenya kind of African - and thus bypasses the tormented past of today's American-African. He's half Kansasian, whatever the hell that would be - a real, traceable tie to the midwest, to our heartland (insert violin music here) which would then make him appear to be as American as apple pie. But then, just to make matters worse, what did he do? He then grew up in the Land of Hula and spent some time living in and learning about cultures other than American. Yes, you read that right! Cultures other than American! Seriously, are there any cultures other than American? I mean, cultures worth living in and learning about? Like, sure, there are places we can go to ~vacation~ and maybe dance the aforementioned hula, but are they really worth living in and learning about?

It's clear to me that all this living and learning made him ungrateful to the country he was born in which is probably why he wanted to be president (you know, so he could "get even") except... except... except that maybe he wasn't really born here... and that's not all. To top it off, this unconnected black man married a woman who is so connected she can actually trace her lineage back to slave Africans. This means, you see, that he's as biased and as victim's-card-playin' as the rest of the American Africans who aren't thankful and grateful that their great great grandparents were dragged here against their will and forced to work for free to build this great nation we took from indigenous Americans (oops, sorry indigenous Americans).

Barack Obama... that ungrateful bastard legitimately born to a married couple. He's just happy/mad that he was/wasn't born here and is/isn't connected to any real black Americans and he might/mightn't really be President.

WTF? See! I told you Barack Obama's confusing! Look at the effect he's having on me! Well, I want you to remember two things from this post. First, America is for Americans, no matter what part of the globe we kidnap them from. Second, hula is for HOOPS. And not that basketball kind, either.

Get it? Got it? Good.

Roy Blunt: Obama Birth Certificate A "Legitimate Question" (VIDEO)

...sigh...the certificate of live birth IS a birth certificate. In certain cases - adoption, for example - the birth certificate with all the data (signatures of parents, attending physician, the footprint, the weight and length, the number of children delivered in this pregnancy) is sealed and cannot be viewed. In other cases, when it's nobody's business how much you weighed at birth and whether or not you had a twin who was delivered stillborn, you get a CERTIFICATE OF LIVE BIRTH FROM THE COUNTY IN WHICH YOU WERE BORN. IF HAWAII ISSUED THE CERTIFICATE OF LIVE BIRTH, HE WAS BORN THERE. Yes, I'm shouting.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Glenn Beck Removes States' Stars From American Flag Until "They Get Serious About States' RIghts" Like Alaska, Tennessee (VIDEO)

Dear States of America,



Please, please, please hurry and comply with the request of Glenn Beck. Do you realize that we are a nation torn asunder until he puts those state stars back on the flag? Don't you realize that we need Glenn Beck's support and approval to exist as a sovereign nation of states that are individually sovereign? Wait, that's not what I meant. Okay, let's start over. We can be a nation united with states that are separate...okay, hold on... we are a nation of states that are separate but united together except that each state isn't a part of the united part unless it wants to be or unless it needs a federal bailout or FEMA or vaccinations and it wants to participate in what it wants to participate in and doesn't have to do anything it doesn't really want to do...uh oh.



If we do it Glenn Beck's way, that flag really IS broken. Or maybe it's just Glenn Beck that's broken.



Calling Walgreen's to see if Glenn picked up his prescriptions,

TheRiverWanders
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Online Poll: Jon Stewart Is America's Most Trusted Newsman

I'm not surprised. No offense to the other folks in the running, but Stewart has the ability (skill and opportunity) to be very direct and unflinching. I actually watch The Daily Show for the news more than the laughs. When I want laughs first, I watch Mourning Joe on MSNBC.
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Liz Cheney Defends Birthers On Larry King (VIDEO)

Mark my words, Liz "Dartha Vader" Cheney is running for office.
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Henry Louis Gates Jr. Arrested, Police Accused Of Racial Profiling

Wow, I didn't realize it was criminal to be "tumultuous". Good to know.
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Pat Buchanan: 'Todd Palin Ought To Hold Levi's Head Underwater Till The Thrashing Stops' (VIDEO)

Whoever books that idiot Buchanan onto ANY show should be fired; he's just a Lush Rimbaugh without the cigar slobber and sweat stains.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost