Saturday, December 20, 2008
Why Limbaugh (HEARTS) Palin
Maybe Rush Limbaugh was hoping to be Sarah Palin's Drug Czar after she poisoned John McCain's food, and grabbed the Big Chair.0 comments
Palin's future in-law's arrest was oxycontin-related
Oxycontin? Yippee! Now, THIS is something Rush can REALLY get behind!
It's always handy to have a connection in the President's family.
posted by Gotham 2:28 PM
Friday, December 19, 2008
Dem Watch
If you thought left blogosphere oversight would end with the Republican ass-kicking of 2008, think again.0 comments
Queens Councilman Is Charged With Assault
The major difference between rank and file Democrats and the merely rank bloggers of the right is that the wingnuts will always defend Republican officeholders as keepers of some glorified flame, regardless of what heinous crime a pol has committed. In their canon, the Right, and the GOP are ALWAYS right and OK, and Dems and anything that sniffs of being towards the Left is ALWAYS wrong and bad.
GOPer Uber Alles.
Hundreds upon hundreds of GOP functionaries have been disclosed as crooks, pedophiles, corrupted vermin, or reprobates of various nefarious stripes. Invariably, wingnuts took to their keyboards to defend the pol and attack those who dug into the ooze and brought the facts to light. They'd then attack the left blogosphere for writing about any widening investigation.
Democrats, on the other hand, don't like corruption one whit. Rep. Jefferson (D-LA) found that out when his overwhelmingly Democratic district threw him out on his ass.
Now that we are the party at the wheel, we need to watch our members for any taint of GOP-esque behavior.
Case in point: new NYC arresttee Hiram Monserrate of Jackson Heights, Queens, NY. Soon to be formerly of the NYC City Council and maybe (if he doesn't run into further trouble) soon to be the NYS Senator from Jackson Heights, Queens, NY.
This lad has gone quickly from Dem turncoat, before he even walks into the Senate chamber, to going Mike Tyson on his girlfriend.
At this point, he looks like scum. But, currently he's OUR scum, and as opposed to the rubberstamp Red Neckties of the GOP, we intend to keep an extremely sharp eye on our members. It's bad enough that you cannot find a vertebrae anywhere in most Democratic caucuses. We, collectively, will not stand for active, overt assholedness.
posted by Gotham 10:03 PM
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Bush Shares Bittersweet Memories
Ahhhhh, such memories...0 comments
"My..., just like it was yesterday...
The Supreme Court made me president.
I killed a whole lotta people.
Made my friends a whole lotta money.
Got rid of a lot of that dopey Constitution.
Then, poof, you look around, and it's all over. Finished.
Man, that was fast.
I wanna do over."
posted by Gotham 7:50 PM
Rudy's Baaaaaack!
Some demons you just can't kill. Rudy on the radio?1 comments
This will give me an opportunity to drag out and dust off my Rudy Giuliani Voodoo Doll.
Catch the video at the bottom at the story. Rudy hasn't changed a bit from this, other than the facelift. Pencil in any other topic you'd like, and this is exactly how Rudy will deal with the State or the country if we ever let this madman near the reins of power again on any level.
Honest dissent? "Oh, you're simply unstable, and you should see a psychiatrist, because I can't help you."
Don't like my tax plan? "I don't know what to tell you, you're deranged, and you should see a psychiatrist, because I can't help you."
It's always amazing how Rudy truly embraces those big concepts—like the fact that there's a world that exists just on the other side of his skin.
But look at the upside to Rudy being on the radio—lots and lots of eternal clips like this one, to use against him in any election he's foolish enough to enter.
As soon as he puts that exploratory committee together, yum, all Rudy clips, all the time...
posted by Gotham 1:23 PM
Thursday, December 11, 2008
The Kill-The-Competition Scorecard
Just so you can keep track.0 comments
CNBC recently created a list of states, Senators and car plants. Now, you can tell who's looking out for America—and who's speaking up for foreign interests, at great cost to the interests of the U.S.
Gotham Notes posts them here (Right-To-Work states in bold). (While, yes, some U.S. plants sit in R-T-W states and a handful of alien plants sit in Unionized states, the majority of each still rest with their respective groupings):CNBC | 20 Nov 2008 | 02:23 PM ET
As Capitol Hill wrestles with a bailout of the Big Three Detroit automakers, CNBC decided to look into the Senate representation of the U.S. automotive manufacturing base. What follows is a state-by-state compilation of auto plants:
Alabama - Jeff Sessions (R), Richard C. Shelby (R)
- Montgomery – Hyundai
- Tuscaloosa – Mercedes Benz
- Lincoln – Honda
- Huntsville - Toyota
Delaware – Joe Biden (D) Thomas Carper (D)
- Wilmington - GM
Georgia - Saxby Chambliss (R), Johnny Isakson (R)
- Doraville - GM
Illinois – Richard Durbin (D); Barack Obama's former seat.
- Chicago – Ford, Lincoln, Mercury
- Belvedere – Chrysler
Indiana - Evan Bayh (D), Richard Lugar (R)
- Roanoke – Chevy/GMC
- Indianapolis – GM, powertrain, metal
- Bedford – GM, powertrain
- Marion – GM, metal
- Princeton - Toyota
Kansas – Sam Brownback (R), Pat Roberts (R)
- Fairfax – GM
Kentucky - Jim Bunning (R), Mitch McConnell (R)
- Louisville – Ford Mercury
- Bowling Green – Chevy/Cadillac
- Georgetown – Toyota
Louisiana – Mary Landrieu (D), David Vitter (R)
- Shreveport - GM
Maryland - Benjamin Cardin (D), Barbara Mikulski (D)
- White Marsh – GM, powertrain
Michigan – Carl Levin (D), Debbie Stabenow (D)
- Sterling Heights – Ford, axels
- Woodhaven – Ford
- Dearborn - Ford
- Wayne – Ford
- Romeo – Ford, engine
- Detroit – Buick/Cadillac
- Flint – GM
- Bay City – GM, engine parts
- Livonia – GM, powertrain
- Pontiac- Chevy/GMC
- Orion – Pontiac
- Lansing – Cadillac, GMC/Saturn
- Warren - Chrysler
Minnesota – Norm Coleman (R), Amy Klobuchar (D)
- St. Paul - Ford, Mazda
Mississippi - Thad Cochran (R), Roger Wicker (R)
- Blue Spring - Toyota (opens 2010)
- Canton - Nissan
Missouri - Christopher Bond (R), Claire McCaskill (D)
- Kansas City, - Ford, Mazda, Mercury
- Wentzville – GM
- Fenton - Chrysler
Nevada – John Ensign (R), Harry Reid (D)
- Las Vegas - Shelby
New York – Hillary Clinton (D), Charles Schumer (D)
- Massena – GM, powertrain
- Tonawanda – GM, powertrain
Ohio – Sherrod Brown (D), George Voinovich (R)
- Brook Park – Ford, engines
- Avon Lake – Ford
- Marysville – Honda
- Toledo – GM Powertrain
- Lordstown – Chevy/Pontiac
- Mansfield – GM metal
- Moraine – GM
- Parma – GM metal
- Anna – Honda, engines
- East Liberty – Honda
- Russells Point – Honda, transmissions
- Twinsburg - Chrylser
Pennsylvania - Robert Casey (D), Arlen Specter (R)
- Pittsburgh – GM metal
South Carolina – Jim DeMint (R), Graham Lindsey (R)
- Spartanburg – BMW
Tennessee – Lamar Alexander (R), Bob Corker (R)
- Smyrna - Nissan
- Spring Hill – Saturn
- Decherd – Nissan
Texas – John Cornyn (R), Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R)
- Arlington – GM
- San Antonio - Toyota
Virginia - John Warner (R), Jim Webb (D)
- Fredericksburg – GM, powertrain
Wisconsin – Russell Feingold (D), Herb Kohl (D)
- Janesville – GM
- Kenosha – Chrysler
Now, when you see Sen. XXX bloviating on FOX or CNBC about sending the Big 3 down the tubes, just to kill the United Auto Workers, check here to see whose axe they're grinding.
Update 1/16/09:
The actual need, now that George W. Bush stuck the poison pill of a No Strike provision for the UAW in the automakers bailout, is to turn right around and throw every effort into unionizing those wretched souls stuck working for sub-standard wages and little to no benefits in the foreign car plants hiding throughout the South. They've turned the American South into a Third-world country with cheap labor, so it's time to support the Southern worker, and allow him and her to step into a decent life in the 21st Century.
Until then, boycott all non-union foreign cars.
Buy American!
posted by Gotham 4:08 PM
The GOP Will Happily Destroy America, Just To Get Their Way
This is about union-busting.0 comments
It is about nothing other THAN union-busting.
In this video, Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), does the bidding of the alien car makers, even if it spells the destruction of what's left of the U.S. economy. (Could only find a link. If I can add the video directly later, I will.—GN)
Simply put, the GOP just does not care about causing damage, AS LONG AS THEY GET THEIRS. In this case, theirs is defined as the two-headed dog of wiping out labor unions and helping out the non-union manufacturers who've nestled into their anti-worker states.
Yes, Americans nationwide have bail-out fatigue.
Yes, the Bush White House and this current, heavily GOP-influenced Congress have screwed up the necessary moves that have needed to be made.
Granted.
But, the destruction of the U.S. auto makers will serve no useful purpose other than to assist the financial and competitive position of the alien car makers from Japan, Germany, the UK and Korea that have been sliding auto plants into the U.S.
On their way out the door after getting their asses soundly kicked and their tenets roundly repudiated in November, the Me-First Party is making a concerted last effort to destroy every vestige of American labor unions they can get away with—EVEN IF DOING SO DESTROYS THE VERY COUNTRY THEY SWORE AN OATH TO DEFEND. Even if it throws millions of Americans onto the street with no prospects.
Let's be very clear, here. The GOP talking points on the Big 3 loan package have—from the very beginning—been aimed at destroying The United Auto Workers union, and forcing the U.S. auto makers to shred and renounce all of their contracts with the UAW.
This has been a well orchestrated campaign, right from Mitt Romney's first whining about the UAW at the outset of the auto makers' woes this go-'round.
Later, they gave us the bogus "$70/hr." slime, which still shows up in papers around the country and on cable, even though it's been debunked as self-serving crap, time and again.
Once again, just so we are all clear:The average UAW worker makes $29/hr.; the alien car makers in right-to-work states pay $26/hr., on average. Too close; no slime possible there.
Even the benefits are almost comparable. Hmmm, still not slime-worthy.
No, it's in the legacy charges of pensions and health care for retirees that the slime-meisters come up with the payments that allow them to distort their arguments, and sell them as gospel. The alien car makers in the South simply are too new to have any appreciable number of retirees—plus, they weren't around in the era of pensions, so they don't carry much in the way of retirement costs. If you'll recall, that was the main idea behind the creation of the 401k and IRAs—to be able to shift the cost of retirement away from corporations (to reward lifelong loyalty) and onto the workers themselves (every man, woman and child for their own damned self, bub). Sweet.
The new plants in the South have little-to-no retiree/pension costs. Detroit has massive retiree costs, since they were the engine that created Middle Class America after WWII, with all those pensions and health costs of "the Greatest Generation" and their children, the pre- and early Boomers, still on the books.
As they have tried consistently since Republicans under Newt Gingrich and later George W. Bush came to power, the GOP would happily throw your parents and grandparents out into the streets to starve and to die. It's in their DNA.
Additionally, press accounts consistently neglect to insert the fact that every GOP Senator you see grabbing air time on this issue is from A RIGHT-TO-WORK STATE, where they've effectively killed union participation, and have heavy support from alien car makers in direct competition with Detroit. Right-to-work companies are free to abuse and underpay their workers with impunity.
Take a look at this, from something called the National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation (which we assume is only too happy to help you protect your right to be abused in the workplace):
I love the Forced-Unionism State line. They forgot to include "Evil." These folks are a hoot.
Does anything about the pattern of the color of the states jump out at you?
How about...
Pretty striking, no? Same pattern. Swap a few states in either direction, and they're the same.
Republican-held states have destroyed collective bargaining in their territories, allowing businesses to act in any anti-worker ways they so choose. If a worker objects, he or she stands alone. Just the way the company wants it. It's called "business-friendly."
States behind the Red Curtain also tend to reside at the lower reaches of education rankings, so the GOP happily keeps its constituents ignorant and pliable. Since they have no great supply of natural resources to interest corporations, these state leaders must offer a third-world-level workforce, who have been indoctrinated in the idea that unions are bad and evil and will abuse your right to be a rugged individual. Who cares if you're only making 60 cents on the dollar, if you can "be your own man, dammit"?
So, now that the GOP is being booted out the door nationally and has had to claw desperately to hold onto seats even in their own territories, this is their last opportunity to do favors for the alien car makers who have become such major players in these right-to-work states.
Kill General Motors; make Toyota and Mazda happy. Kill Ford; make Volkswagon or BMW happy.
Sens. Richard Shelby (R-AL), Jeff Sessions (R-AL), John Ensign, Mitch McConnell (R-KY, which isn't r-t-w, but that's not stopping HIM!), David (Hooker-boy) Vitter (R-LA) and Larry (Widestance) Craig (R-ID) and others, are all only too happy to keep their bona fides intact with these European and Asian corporations in order to keep the campaign donation largess flowing. Each of these men have tackled any reporter and cameraman within 20 yards of them, to ensure their camera time as they seek to send the U.S. over an economic cliff, simply to aid a contributor.
There is a term used to describe supporting and doing the bidding of foreign interests over the economic and security interests of the United States of America—especially, when it's done for money.
That word?
Treason.
posted by Gotham 2:04 PM
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Shaping Up Sub-Prime
2 comments
No, not that sub-prime, the Mets' sub-prime.
Sub-Prime Field.
What the Mets laughingly refer to as Citi Field.
Citi Field Starting to Look Like a Real BallparkIt is still called Citi Field, by the way. Even though Citigroup, which in 2006 agreed to pay the Mets $400 million over 20 years for naming rights and signage, needed a government bailout worth billions, its senior VP of global community relations, Eric Eve, and the Mets’ chief operating officer, Jeff Wilpon [the owner's son], said Tuesday there are no plans to change the name of the new stadium.
Here's my favorite part:Wilpon added that he wasn’t concerned about any public backlash regarding the organization’s relationship with Citigroup.
Fat chance, Jeffie boy!
Not when you need to be Mayor Wallet (above), or to mortgage your house to buy tickets for a family of four. Unfortunately, Citibank isn't alone in not giving out mortgages or loans to anybody these days. "Four tickets down the first base line, please," just isn't going to unthaw that ol' credit freeze. Tough luck all around, bub.
So, let's see, you can't afford the seats and spiffy whizzbangs in the Wilpon family's new Sub-Prime Field tribute to Daddy Wilpon's beloved, departed Brooklyn Dodgers. And you also can't get a loan to afford those high prices in Sub-Prime.
Hmmm. Here's an upbeat vision, looking down the road of a long season: Once the citizens of Gotham turn on New York City's red-tie Corporati (who've both messed up the finances of this country AND grabbed all the decent seats at Shea and now at Sub-Prime), drag them into the streets, and then beat them soundly with clubs, a growing number of seats should go begging at Sub-Prime Field. Then, the wise Wilpons will drop their prices to merely exorbitant levels to lure folks back into their park. Perhaps entree would then be possible, even without a loan perhaps.
Then, all New Yorkers might actually see what the new park looks like.
Until then, that's why God created television.
And why Wilpon, no fool he, started his own channel.
posted by Gotham 11:51 AM
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Well, THAT Explains It, Then...
I know...0 comments
You, just like I have, have always wondered:
Just WHO WERE those folks who made up that 20% in George W. Bush's 20% approval rating?
This may help explain:
1 in 5 young Americans has personality disorder
It certainly explains that years' long oddity of there being a "young republicans club." Who knew?
Ahhh, the wonders of science.
posted by Gotham 1:04 PM
