BJ

The more you know…

I co-opted this link from Digg so maybe you’ve seen this already.

If you want to find out how the Obama tax plan would affect your bottom line, follow the link, enter the info and then click calculate: http://alchemytoday.com/obamataxcut/

I followed the click-thru on the page to the Tax Policy Center and read the complete updated executive summary from the Tax Policy Center website and its worth reading if you’re interested. Its only 9 pages and the language isn’t too dry but it gives some great background info and really helps you see just how incomprehensibly screwed up the IRS is. And as an added bonus, the exec. summary also includes a few details on the respective candidate healthcare plans.

Only 60 days to go. Pass this information on to as many folks as you can. Its incredibly important that people understand what they’re actually voting for. Maybe you’ll change a mind or two along the way.

BJ

Today’s picture post

I even wore myself out with all my silliness in the previous political posts. Oh, I still have a couple of things I want to talk about: tax plans, environmental plans, Republican pundits gone wild in front of open mics, etc. But they’ll wait for another day. Today is old picture day.

Here’s one from what I think is probably Christmas 1973 based on how young Heather looks. Cute picture of Me and Brian and Heather and Dad.

BJ

The hypocrisy of the right

The web, the television media, the radio personalities, the print media, practically anyone who is someone has said something about the big thing that was big news yesterday; namely, Sarah Palin’s 17 year-old daughter is pregnant out of wedlock.

I have nothing to add to the debate.  And I’m trying to taking my cue from Obama (and other’s) who have rightly said that the family of a national political figure is off limits.

What I do have want to talk about is the galling hypocrisy of the neo-conservative right. When a prominant liberal figure errs publicly, the national right-wing media and conservative pundits practically fall all over their bibles in an attempt to vilify them. But when it comes to their own, we hear things like “We’re so proud that Bristol Palin has chosen life for her child.” Hundreds of thousands of teenage girls get pregnant each year. Some choose life, some choose abortion. Either way, its not necessarily a figure to be proud of. Yet, the neo-cons and their base of evangelical zealots want to eradicate what’s left of sex education in US schools and replace it with so-called “abstinence-only” education. Clearly, its not working. Sarah Palin herself is an abstinence-only advocate, by the way.

Just imagine for yourself if this had happened to Chelsea Clinton. This has been mentioned before in other places but I don’t think it takes much imagination to conjure up the kind of giddy, frothy excitement you’d see coming from the right.

About the only good thing I can see coming from this is that the Palin family is claiming, publicly at least, to be in full and loving support for their daughter. And that’s a good lesson for others to see. Support these young girls. Don’t vilify them. And do a better job teaching them (and the horn-dog boys who occupy the same halls in jr. & sr. high school) about sex and about birth control. But I think that support is the most important thing. Whatever they decide, they need to know that they are still loved. I often think its for the lack of feeling loved that they find themselves in this position in the first place. Teach and demonstrate self-esteem. And for chrissake, tear them away from the TV now and then so they don’t have to see the constant stream of underfed, shallow and morose figures that populate prime time television.

Finally, the right-wing media (particularly Fox news) is making a stink over the netroots blog DailyKos publishing the rumor of “baby-gate” on their website. I’ve heard things like “reckless,” “unethical,” “liberal slander,” etc. being mentioned about this. To Fox and to other right-wing media outlets I want to say…Knock it the fuck off!!! Anyone remember what Rush Limbaugh once said about Michael J. Fox? That’s just one example of the same kind of behavior coming out of neo-con blabber mouths. Get used to it. It may be distasteful (and I agree that it often is) but that’s the job of opinion outlets like this. They say the things that the traditional media can’t easily say without risking what’s left of their impartiality.

Gustav looks pretty bad.  And it looks bad for the gulf coast. After 3 years, New Orleans still hasn’t recovered from Katrina and now a new and possibly more powerful storm is bearing down on them once more. The mandatory evacuation is underway and the nation is holding its breath and many are praying that there is no repeat of the human tragedy. One thing that we can hope for is that Gustav doesn’t regain any strength over the gulf as it makes its way to the nation’s coast.

From MSNBC - About a million evacuate as Gustav nears

BJ

A wolf in sheep’s clothing

I’m going to go right ahead and start with a couple of good links. That way, you don’t actually have to read my diatribe if you’d rather not.

So…what follows is the diatribe. And I’d like to say that my usual slate of qualifiers applies. I am not a pundit. I do little, if any, research. I am a grammarian’s worst nightmare and I am laughably uninformed about so many things. Also - I needed to mow the yard today and I couldn’t get most of my thoughts into the blog so I wrote it down on paper. That’s right! Paper! Suck it, computer!

Everyone’s favorite phrase this morning is “game changer.” That the selection of Sarah Palin “changes the game” for the presidential election. First of all, it ain’t a game. It’s an election. That sort of goes without saying. But I’ll give the pundits their little phrases. Because second of all…game changer, my ass! This doesn’t change anything. It just confirms what everyone already knew; that John McCain will do anything he has to do to pander to the extreme right-wing of his party. And if making them happy wins him the election, he’ll do it. What little I know about this Sarah Palin (more about that in a bit) leads me to believe that she’s sort of a female version of Ralph Reed. And I don’t mean that as a compliment. Evangelical, neo-conservative, anti-choice, anti-gay marriage and all wrapped up in a package that’s designed to be palatable to the populous. A clean and polished veneer just barely hiding the cheap politics lurking underneath. In other words - she’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

So let’s jump right into the biggie. Supposedly, the Hillary Clinton supporters are expected to drop everything and support Sarah Palin. Why? Cause she’s a woman. Nothing more.

Not only is this insulting to women voters but its doubly insulting to Clinton supporters and to Hillary Clinton herself, for that matter. Hillary Clinton certainly didn’t shy away from the historical quality of her presidential campaign. Indeed, she embraced it. As did many of her supporters. As did I. But underneath that was an expansive platform of reform-minded politics built on Democratic principles. There was a plan for healthcare and an economic strategy and a tough foreign policy and it was open to all comers including gays and lesbians and African-Americans and supporters of abortion rights and so on…I could go on but I hope you’re getting the picture.

I am well aware that there are PUMAs out there who will jump ship for this choice. And as far as the right-wing base; they were going to walk into the voting booth and pull the lever for McCain no matter how much speculation in the media over “concerns” about McCain’s commitment to conservative ideals. But by choosing a woman just because you think that all women will come along for the ride is chauvinist.

Second, if you’ve done much reading on the political blogs and elsewhere, you’ll remember that in a recent town hall meeting, McCain was pressed pretty hard on picking a VP nominee who would appeal to the neo-cons and social conservatives. And in his response, he said that the only thing that a VP is good for is to cast the tie breaking vote in the Senate and to inquire daily as the the health of the president. Well, at the age of 73, that seems to me to be a pretty fucking important job. So a VP choice with zero foreign policy or legislative experience is not the kind of person you want being a heart-beat away from the presidency. Of course, he went on the record later as saying that he was just joking about how unimportant the choice is. Just joking? I don’t get how that can be the sort of thing you joke about? Isn’t this a serious thing to him?

And yes, I get that this is supposed to negate the entire experience issue. But if you really wanted to negate the issue, why would you walk right into this dead end? Why not pick someone with scads of experience and then really press the issue over the next 67 days? Now, neither one of them can really go far with that line of attack. Not that I mind. I’d love for this to get back to the issues but like I said in my first point, its clear which issues John McCain thinks will get him elected - its the God and guns argument all over again.

I need to wrap this up cause I’m guessing that even a really committed person would have trouble making it to the end of this rambling post. But I want to touch one more issue. I can 100% guarantee that there are strategists in the McCain/Palin campaign trying to cook up ways to paint Joe Biden as just another one of the good ‘ol boy network. That’s supposedly Sarah Palin’s big claim to fame. She went into Alaska’s governorship and “cleaned up all them good ‘ol boys.” Please, for the love of Christ, remember that Joe Biden has a proud record of standing up for women including the landmark legislation on protecting women from violence and on equal pay.

And he’s just as much of an outsider as he is a man who’s been in the Senate for 30+ years. He’s always marched to a different beat and often to his own detriment with his numerous verbal gaffes. So, if there just happen to be any Democratic strategists reading this, please don’t wait until you have no choice but be reactionary and defensive when this argument inevitably presents itself. Go on the offense. Focus on the positives in Biden’s legislative history. Make sure that the voters know, in no uncertain terms, that Biden stands for the working class and stands up for women and can never be painted as just another member of the good ‘ol boys network.

Finally, and after that scornful and poorly researched post of mine, I encourage you to continue visiting two great websites:

  • FactCheck.org
  • and this nifty new one that FactCheck.org gave props to on a couple of occasions - PolitiFact.org brought to you by the folks at the St. Petersburg Times.
BJ

Yes we can!


BJ

Today’s bonus post

Remember how I was complaining about how dry its been around Charlotte?  Remember how I scoffed at anyone who said about their local weather “it hasn’t rained around here in a week or so” by reminding them that we were in our 18th month of severe drought conditions?

Well, I’m not complaining right now.  Look at what the remnants of Fay have done to our area…

Downpour floods Charlotte streets - Charlotte Observer slideshow

Here’s another link…

WSOC-TV.com slideshow

BJ

Fascinating website

Have you ever wondered where the actual statistics you hear casually tossed around on the network news come from? If you’re like me, you may have heard some astonishing stat come out of the mouth of a reporter or anchor person and think to yourself, “that can’t possibly be right.” But you don’t really have much choice but believe it cause after all, it’s on the news and the news never stretches the truth.

You’ve got to check out this website — stats.org.

It’s absolutely fascinating to me that when you actually take time to analyze the statistics you hear, they often become totally benign. And there’s alot of proof on the site that you don’t need to be as worried as the nightly news keeps telling you that you should be. But I don’t think that means its O.K. to adopt a laissez-faire attitude over some things that, even in the absence of truly frighten statistics, still need attention. Just because some of the stats on global warming, for instance, are more alarmist than necessary, doesn’t mean we should stop trying to make a change toward renewable energy resources.

Yes, I have strange fascinations.

BJ

Today’s good read

Lovely article from Salon.com today about the convention (what else):

Angry PUMAs on the prowl in Denver

PUMA stands for “Party Unity, My Ass!” in case you haven’t heard the term before. But more than just talking about the PUMAs and their indignation, Salon does a wonderful job of piling on the over-eager media for their rabidly tenacious focus on Hillary v. Obama supporters and the possibility of dischord in Denver.

I particularly like the line shouted by the Obama supporter — “You’re all irrelevant! Jesus!”

Priceless.

Panthers v. Redskins recap

I know, I know.  Its only a preseason game. But, still…How can you not get excited about a whuppin’ like this one.

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