Oh, folks, it’s a full table of WTF this week and I’m introducing a new category, “Holy Shit”, so grab your sporks and chow down.
WTF?? 1. The Democratic Joe Barton? This week, Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.), speaking before the House during the horse trading session known as the Financial Reform bill, said: “We’re giving relief to people that I deal with in my office every day now unfortunately…But because of the longevity of this recession, these are people — and they’re not minorities and they’re not defective and they’re not all the things you’d like to insinuate that these programs are about — these are average, good American people.” And he is being portrayed in the MSM, as in this Washington Post article, as having made a huge gaffe. It certainly does seem like a particularly smarmy thing to say, doesn’t it? But watch the video:
I see frustration with those who actually DO say that programs that benefit minorities and the “defective” should be eliminated – in other words, frustration with the republicans.
they’re not minorities and they’re not defective and they’re not all the things you’d like to insinuate that these programs are about
Well put? No. Not well said at all. However, basically how the republicans view anything that doesn’t benefit their big corporation handlers? Yep, true indeed. It’s all about context, isn’t it?
WTF?? 2. Disclosure. The House thursday passed a provision of the financial reform bill that included requirements of disclosure for corporations and organizations who promote a political candidate through advertising. GREAT!!! Unless it’s the NRA, of course. Ok, so the Sierra club got exempted too, but really, I think that was a complete accident. The intent was the exempt the NRA. Let’s face it, any organization tightly bound by ideology and who has an armed-to-the-teeth membership that outnumbers all active military, all local state and federal law enforcement and all college/university campus police 2 to 1 will get pretty much whatever it wants. I said it last week, I’ll say it again today: The NRA is a clear and present danger to the republic.
WTF?? 3. Darth Cheney Did Not Have A Heart Attack. DAMMIT!!! Isn’t that old bastard ever going to die??
WTF?? 4. Headline today from MSNBC.com in regards to the Financial Reform bill finally agreed upon by the House and Senate: New Rules, But Will Wall Street Play By Them? Don’t count on it.
WTF?? 5. Maybe those Kindergarten Graduations should just be chucked. Personally, I think one of the dumbest ideas that the educational system ever came up with is graduations from kindergarten, elementary school, 3rd grade, 6th grade, middle school, 9th grade, etc. etc. etc. I just don’t see the benefit of celebrating something before celebration is warranted. This seems to me to tie back into the popular, and seriously misguided notion that children shouldn’t lose at anything, that everyone should succeed because it might hurt little janie’s feelings if she didn’t win the 50 yard dash on the last day of 4th grade. It provides no incentive for children to try to succeed, if they know they’ll get a ribbon for “just taking part.” Just taking part isn’t good enough in adult life, and it cannot be good enough in a child’s life. Children need expectations, and if those expectations are not present, then those children will grow up with no sense of having to work to succeed. We see every day around us (or, at least, I do) people who have their heads so far up their own asses that they may never see reality again. I work with a few. I’m betting you know at least a couple of people like that, too. If graduations from Kindergarten provide no real benefit to the students, then perhaps the detrimental aspects should be reason enough to do away with this nonsense. One detriment that comes to mind is that it just provides idiots masquerading as parents the excuse to have a twenty person fistfight on the graduation field. Right in front of their five year olds. Nice job, moms and dads. Are there any adults left in this country?
My last entry deserves a new heading, so instead of WTF, this one is Holy Shit.
Holy Shit: Blood iPhones. You’ve heard of blood diamonds – gems mined by slaves who are beaten, worked literally to death, murdered regularly with complete impunity. Ever heard of the blood iPad? In eastern Congo, there is a war going on that is so low on the radar it doesn’t even register above Miley Cyrus’ wardrobe malfunctions despite the fact that over 5 million have died in the Congo, and women have taken the brunt of the violence. What do the militias in the Congo have to do with your new iPad, iPhone, blackberry or laptop? The metals and minerals, particularly tantalum, used to build that sleek, sexy little gadget you picked up at Best Buy last weekend might have come from the Congo, and might very well be fueling those militias that rape, murder and mutilate at will and without consequence.
Would you like to know how can you voice your displeasure with suspecting that your newest gadget is made from minerals and metals that came from the Congo and was sold by a brutal militia? Take a stroll over to the grassroots organization Raise Hope For Congo, and see what they’ve got going on.
That’s it for this Sunday, folks. I know I haven’t had much of the Strikes My Fancy desserts the last few weeks – I’m having trouble finding any suitable for the table. Fact is, we’ve got some serious problems in this world, and not much of anything is really being done to address those problems. I will leave you with one last thought. In the Congo, we see militias armed to the teeth and turning their countryside into hell on earth. Here in the United States, where we live in a country safe enough for two world leaders to walk into a burger joint for lunch. However, no one ever said that the United States will always be as safe as it is…particularly with a well-armed organization like the NRA outnumbering 2 to 1 every other potential armed buffer between them and us on the prowl. You see, when a group of humans gets control over another group of humans, hell usually does break loose. I can easily see the NRA and it’s true believers loosing hell in this country one day. They only need a really good excuse. Fortunately, so far, a black man in the white house hasn’t been an excuse quite good enough – but it’s damned close, folks, it’s damned close indeed.
Tags: blood iPhones, campaign finance reform, Cheney, Congo, Enough! campaign, financial reform bill, kindergarten graduation brawl, kindergarten graduations, NRA, Paul Kanjorski; minorities and defectives, political advertising disclosure, Raise Hope For Congo
Good Morning Bee,
I’ve been looking forward to your post since yesterday. You didn’t let me down. We were going to get the new iphones, now I’ll wait and see how things play out. I’m already pissed at apple because of the ipads being made in slave labor conditions.
Cheney the most evil man since Hitler should be in prison for war crimes. NRA sucks moose dick. If they had their way,bazookas would be legal. As far as kids go, I just love them,…baked, broiled, or fried….Dirty annoying little critters that they are. As for Republicans and a few Dems..I hope the stupid people wake the hell up and stop voting the into office. I also hope all the people affected will remember and their kids and so on,exactly what the party of NO is all about….Greed.
Later got to take my pills now..;)
Well, sweetie, it’s another week of chaos churning here on planet Earth. Huge gaffe???!!!! WTF?? Kanjorski speaks with honesty and in support of good people who are now being set out on the political curb! I know 2 people personally who are in dire straits over this… both having spent whole careers in a corporate cradle that has thrown them out like so much trash. I’m so angry I could spit!
Ya know Bee, my Mom used to advise me, some people are just to effin’ mean to die.
Your “Holy Shit” section… I had some inkling, thx for the fuller accounting… that needs to be screamed out to the buying public! Absolutely screamed! Thank you for the link… I’ll pass it along and keep it.
Frustration with this White House grows so large…. so large.
Great stinger here Bee!
Nice one Bee, as we’ve come to expect and enjoy!
WTF 1: Kanjorski speaking to what he perceived to be an informed audience.Unfortunately there is little of that (informed audiences)in the US so easy to intentionally misunderstand what he said and depict it in that manner.
WTF 2: No question. If the NRA ever served a useful purpose it no longer does.
WTF 3: More sad news.
WTF 4: Stocks went up overall 2.7% on passage. Tells us all we need to know about the bill.
WTF 5: Yes the “everybody’s a winner” mentality downgrades everything and everyone. Other than the great kids at Special Olympics this approach sucks. I’m 100% on board with you here. Speaking of inappropriate brawls, some of my family members had one in the parking lot DURING a funeral. Back in the day. I’d chosen to skip it and smoke weed.
HS: You know I’ve read many times how the British (and by extension Western Europe)in the early 20th century de-colonized gracefully as the curtains drew on their empires. You know, not fighting the natives who wanted freedom. Very civilized, held up as an example to how the US would hopefully wind down.
Truth is they exited Africa and Asia and Palestine like the house was on fire. Their divide and rule tactics which kept them atop things flared into genocide or mass killings everywhere they fled. But Congolese and other indigenous peoples lives weren’t factored in. I suspect by gracefully the collective wisdom is, little to no cost in European lives/$.
Hi Bee. I really have no wish for Cheney to die. The best thing he could have done for America was to die ten years ago, but now it’s too late to matter.
I did a post several years ago about the ongoing civil war in the Congo. I read about it at Project Censored. The American “media” certainly isn’t gonna be bothered with reporting on it. Millions of women and children getting and maimed in a civil war in some primitive country we’ve barely heard of, versus Miley Cyrus? C’mon people — Ratings!
Judging by some of the comments I got at the post, the rest of the world has been very much aware of the civil war in the Congo. I think the American media is the most guilty of keeping American viewers sealed comfortably inside their own private bubble.
Tim: Heyyyy, what kind of pills you got? I could use one myself right about now
Gwendolyn: I think most of us now know at least one person who has been royally fucked by the corporate greed syndrome…whether laid off outright, or forced into “early retirement”, which is just another colorful euphemism for “fired”. Yeah, the world is look really f’ed up from this side of the hive these days, y’know?
Oso: You gotta write that book, darlin’. As far as families brawling during the funeral, that’s why I didn’t go to my east kentucky grandma’s funeral 15 years ago. And you’re right on about the de-colonization procedures…can we say clusterfuck? Hell yeah, it’s my blog, so we can definitely say clusterfuck.
TomCat: Oh, dearie, it’s never too late
Tom Harper: If it ever does get airtime here, it will be like Sudan…for about a week, when they just can’t find anything else to write/yammer about, or Brangelina goes over there and makes it a celebrity thing. A lot of the rest of the world definitely isn’t as insulated as we are. There’s an agenda there, you know that, right?
I’m too depressed from all the misery wrought by the damn republicans over the years that not even the suffering of Dick Cheney is bringing me out of the doldrums.
WTF?? 1. I’ve seen Kanjorski on C-SPAN a number of times, and he strikes me as a good man. Not always eloquent, but his heart is in the right place on issues.
Anyone whose IQ is higher than his/her shoe size should have no trouble realizing Kanjorski referred to an assumption commonly held and often repeated by those on the political right. It’s that programs that put money in the pockets of nonwealthy human beings are a matter of welfare extracted from the hard working for the benefit of minorities of one kind or another.
Two interesting things about this. First, big recessions increase the ratio of majority types to minority types out of work. That’s because even in good times, minority types find it harder to get and keep jobs. When they do, they tend to be the last hired, and so the first out the door when the economy tips over, again and again and again.
The other thing is that in most recessions, unemployment benefits don’t come from tax revenues. They’re payback on money withheld from workers’ paychecks. Really big, really long recessions like the current one overwhelm paid in money, thanks to our hollowed out economy and too-frequent busts. So it becomes necessary to tap revenues and/or deficit spend to keep people from going hungry and homeless through no fault of their own.
The MSM jumping on Kanjorski are revealing incredible ignorance of the context. Either that or they’re pandering to the resentful right.
WTF?? 4. You’re right, Bee. It’s not a matter of whether, but of when.
WTF?? 5. Agreed. Reminds me of Garrison Keillor’s line about “…where all the children are above average.”
Ahem.
It’s fine to incentivize kids to do well in school. It’s great to praise them when they do. Graduation is something to be worked toward through a K-12 career as a student. It’s especially something to persevere toward during the dangerous 10th grade-and-above stretch where so many make the mistake of quitting.
SW: Truth be told, I don’t know much about Kanjorski, but I definitely smelled a healthy dose of snark in his comments. AND…let me say, i really liked the way you called out T. Paine…he’s a pain, but at least he doesn’t go bi-polar when someone disagrees with him. He’s long-winded, though, isn’t he?
Kids need praise, and they need incentives to succeed…it’s how we humans work. I just think all these yearly graduations from every grade are silly and futile. I suspect that, like too much of today’s educational crazes, they are more for the parents than the kids. Oy, that’s a whole other blog post, isn’t it? The self-absorbed generation…