5/21/2007 05:47:00 AM
Is a gallon of gas worth 45 minutes of this?
Though they constantly say they loathe illegal immigration, the GOP has happily turned the other way while their corporate buddies exploit illegals for profit. But, with an election on the horizon the situation has snowballed into something ugly, and they're being forced to do something not-eactly-hawkish about it. Could the neocons have avoided this mess?
I think so. I think the GOP's habitual refusal to address the federally mandated minimum wage, along with the greed that drove their constituents to nurture illegal immigration, has brought the right wing to this.
In 1981 I got my first job. It was the summer between 10th and 11th grades, I'd just moved to a new town, and wanted to buy a car. And so, on most days of the week I slung hush puppies and North Atlantic Cod for the newly opened Captain D's on Atlantic Blvd in Jacksonville, FL. For 35 hours a week I earned $3.35 an hour - the federally mandated minimum wage of the time.
It wasn't a bad deal. At 16, I had a whopping 80-something bucks a week (post-taxes). I was a kid living at home; the money was all mine! Even with the ridiculous gas prices of the late 70s and early 80s, eighty bucks could keep a teenager pretty happy for a week.
Consider - in 1981, $3.35 bought:
- more than three gallons of gas ($1.10 average per gallon)
- twenty-two stamps (15 cents each)
- seven loaves of bread (45 cents avg)
- an hour and forty-five minutes at $3.35/hr could buy most record albums (at six dollars apiece)
- three hours of work could get you into any concert
- the average new car, at $7,600, cost (pre-tax) 2,267 hours, or 57 forty-hour weeks of minimum-wage work.
Now, as you all know, the federal minimum wage hasn't changed in ten years. Obviously, this means today's minimum wage-earner cannot buy nearly as much as I could in 1981.
For instance, in 2007 $5.15 buys:
- one and a half gallons of gas
- twelve stamps
- two loaves of bread
- 3.5 hours will buy most new albums (avg $18)
- five hours, at least, for a concert's nosebleed seats ($25 for the shitty seats)
- the average new car is $27,700 bucks; you're looking at 5,379 hours of pre-tax work, or about 135 forty-hour weeks of minimum-wage work.
So it's pretty fucking clear why many of today's teenagers aren't exactly beating down Captain D's doors (and the clueless wonder why today's youth isn't "motivated").
How does the federally-mandated minimum wage affect the current dilemma the GOP is facing on immigration reform?
Rapture-ublicans controlled Congress from 1995 until 2007, and for the past ten years remained stubbornly stagnant on the issue of increasing the minimum wage. Greed, you understand, is considered a virtue among these assholes.Nevertheless, as time passed inflation happened, and there came a time when $5.15 an hour was insufficient. At the same time, corporations needing unskilled, low-wage labor were losing employees.
The solution? Either (1) raise wages - thereby attracting more unskilled American teenagers/young adults, or (2) find another group of people willing to work for $5.15 an hour.
Most corporations happily chose curtain two. They figured out they could get immigrant workers to bust their humps for the federally-mandated minimum wage. Teenagers and pre-college/trade school adults were no longer needed as the foundation of America's unskilled work force. Better yet, once the fat cats figured out many of their newly found immigrant workers weren't in the USA legally, the corporate-immigrant understanding became "you work for less than $5.15 an hour/we won't turn you in."
So much for conservative values, eh?
Anyway, for over a decade no one said "boo" as Minute Maid, Del Monte, and Mott's boosted their profits on the backs of illegal immigrants willing to work for next to nothing. Immigrants flocked here, illegally. Corporations' profits skyrocketed. Congressional (R)s looked the other way.
And now we are where we are. The GOP's long-standing refusal to keep the minimum wage at a competitive level snowballed into a monster they cannot now escape. With a (D)-run congress in town, a general election on the horizon, and their own rabid-right-wing a.m. radio mouthpieces fueling their base's passion, the GOP is being forced to face a gigantic problem of their own making.
Suck it up, crybabies. You've got no one but yourselves to blame.
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5/07/2007 01:33:00 AM
Though they are in the minority, right wing extremism has built for itself an ultra-concentrated media complex. One TV news organization. One radio band with one line up. One type of popular music. And so forth.This concentrated mediaplex is the reason they can honestly claim the most popular cable news network, the most popular radio personalities, etc. For instance, although total viewership of non-hyperconservative news channels outnumbers viewers of FOX News by a ratio of 3 to 1, the rabid right can technically claim they've got the most popular cable news channel in the country.
This tendency to clump around singularities is what defines hyperconservatism. It's a greedy mindset. Stay close to home. Stockpile your assets, and store them all in the same vault. When untouched by outside, regulating forces, it's the kind of thing whose growth is undone by its own overreaching. Without the liberal democratic base, it's dangerous (see: Hitler); in a liberal democracy it's the sort of thing that regularly self-destructs via political implosion. The Whigs, the American Civil War, isolationism, McCarthyism, Nixon.
So, ironically, when we "outsiders" successfully police (e.g., Imus) the singularity-focused type of hyperconservatism that we find alive and well today, this hyperconservatism actually strengthens. It draws its members closer together, confirming for them the world "really is out to get" them. It's as if a delusionally magnified sense of persecution oils the machine that drives these nuts towards their goals.
I think it's better if we ignore the nutcases, like those who run the Excessiveness In Buttboils network, who bait society with their "Barack the Magic Negro" type of nonsense. When they're left to their own devices, they overcram into their condensed locales, ultimately imploding. When outsiders come in and police their stupidity, they actually gain more momentum towards growth, not the overcrowding that regularly does them in.
So, the "Barack the Magic Negro" sort of stunt is more successful at propagating the right wing paranoia machine when it's shut down by mainstream society.
Why not leave them alone, leave them to their own demise?
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4/23/2007 05:38:00 AM
What does history say?
YouTube version:
WMV version:
Enjoy...
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4/23/2007 01:18:00 AM
Are you surprised?
One reason Rove is such a staunch neocon is his homophobia, a condition that typically leads its hosts into the darkest realms of hardcore right wing mania.
Last night Sheryl Crow and Laurie David got a glimpse into the severity of Rove's neurosis. Read about it here.
Obviously, the self-loathing closet case didn't expect Sheryl Crow to touch him, and without a prepared reaction he acted naturally. He was grossed out.
HA!
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4/15/2007 04:25:00 AM
Either the "Free Market" always works itself out, or employers don't have the right to fire employees.
The right wing wants it both ways.
Good riddance, Mush Mouth
CBS and MSNBC dumped Don "Mush Mouth" Imus because neither network could survive airing his show without the ad revenue they'd lose if they did. It wasn't a decision based on morality, or social responsibility. It was based on economics. Simple as that.
Some think Imus has been deprived of his First Amendment rights, but he has not. Remember - civil liberties are freedoms you have that (supposedly) protect you from the government... Imus hasn't been charged with any crime. It's not the government punishing him. It's his employers. And, just as you can't expect the same privacy at your job you can expect in your home (again, supposedly), your freedom of speech at work is trumped by your employer's rights. An employer can levy her or his own rights against you, just as MSNBC and CBS did with MarbleMouth.
If your teenager works in McDonald's, and is fired for telling customers, "Burger King is a lot better than this crap," or, "hey, at least our french fry cooks aren't wetbacks," I doubt you'd get very far trying to recover damages from McDonald's for firing your kid.
This "I-Mess," as Olbermann calls it, serves as a fine example of capitalism at work; it should be embraced by the right wing as such. It was, after all, the market working itself out. Manufacturers and customers are only two components of a market; let us not forget about the employer-employee relationship -- just as much a part of any market as the manufacturer-client relationship.
But the choir of right-wing noise makers have conveniently changed their tune for the moment. Instead of shouting, "the market has again worked itself out," too many of them are singing "hypocrisy! The liberal media are having it both ways!" Imus, they remind us, was only repeating what hip-hop/rap stars say in their music. FOX News, talk radio, and the editorialists of various "news"papers have expressed this sentiment for nearly a week now.
They obviously think the majority of their audience is dumb.
Usually, the right wing wisdom machine (sic) reliably reminds us why a free market is such a grand thing: it's a self-regulating entity. No matter what bumps lie in the proverbial road, the truly free market always "works itself out." This obvious fact is a reliable fall-back for the right.
For instance, if Limbaugh was wrong for asking a black woman to take a bone out of her nose, or for suggesting a Latino runner won a marathon because an immigration official chased him the last ten miles, then, say the neoconanderthals, "the market would've taken care of itself." I.e., either he'd have been fired by an employer fully in its right to dump him, or he'd have eventually lost enough listeners to become nonviable economically. "The market didn't negatively react, his employer didn't fired him, and therefore it was OK." And, technically, they are correct.
Why? Because the free market does always work itself out. Oh, not in a way that preserves (or restores) what most would define as ethical behavior. But in a way that preserves itself.
Which is why an honest FOX News would use this episode to illustrate the virtues of the free market, and then move on.
Wait -- did I just say, "an honest FOX News"??? HA!! I need a minute...
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4/08/2007 03:09:00 AM
MINE:
Obviously the YouTube conversion fucks it all up. How does one pre-empt this shit? How is it the video I created and then uploaded onto my own site sounds fine, but turns to shit when processed through the YouTube conversion? Anyone? Bueller?
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4/06/2007 11:37:00 AM
Naturally, the second try didn't work either. Whatever is happening during the YouTube conversion, it totally fucks up the sound. Most places I've looked online address video quality issues and audio/video sync, but no sites discussing the major drop in audio quality i'm seeing (hearing) here.
Anyway, for my last attempt of the evening, I converted the applause into mono and removed the "ambience" sound effect. And, oh yes, Pinnacle Studio is fucking up. Again. The video disappears at 1:41 - only a black screen - and nothing I was doing seemed to fix it....
So I've had to build up the thing from scratch again.
Here goes nothing... the audio has been simplified, so it should work this time around. Unless that loss-of-sound from the YouTube conversion had nothing to do with the ditched "ambience."
Here it is - the "charm" attempt. Whatever that means.
If this doesn't work I'll have to readdress it tomorrow.
Peas out.
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4/06/2007 10:14:00 AM
Rosie O'Donnell, you're embarrassing America's progressives
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| We don't need a liberal Ann Coulter to bring us down. |
And so it is with a strong sense of philosophical integrity that I can say Rosie O'Donnell is, and will continue to be, a HEEEUUUGE embarrassment for the left. Unless we can throw her overboard.
Even if you agree with everything else she says, she's openly declared her belief in the 9/11 conspiracy theories only the stupidest of conspiracy theorists believe. Sorry, Rosie, but you are officially a moron.
What separates us lefties from the majority of the right is how we deal with nuts like O'Donnell. The right loves Coulter; she raises money for their mainstream political activities, speaks at legitimate GOP functions, appears regularly on their "news" programs.
Here's where we need to pay attention: the right is trying desperately to tie Rosie to the left as a whole. We need to ignore this. No matter how much you might loathe the sight of Joe Scarborough or Billow Reilly, don't go for the bait when they slam Rosie. The more we defend O'Donnell, the more the right will be able to illustrate how stupid we are.
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4/05/2007 10:44:00 AM
And if that doesn't work, you can download it here.
As for the real thing,
ROFLMAO!
My wife and I speak Spanish at home. It's her first language; I learned it in Panama. And we have this let's-poke-fun-at-a-certain-relative inside joke where I speak it, but with the worst possible accent ever. As "gringo" as I can sound. Yes, making fun of a family member. So what?
Anyway, you can imagine our delight when we saw this video of Newt reading Spanish from a teleprompter. Oh my fucking god, it's a classic. Barney the White House pooch speaks more Spanish than this testicularly-challenged/high-voiced neoconanderthal.
Bwah ha ha!
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ADDENDUM:
What a disaster. Apparently the YouTube conversion drastically altered the clip's audio. On YouTube the thing is 90% sound effects, 10% Gingrich speech.
So far very few views, and one very low review (can you blame the guy?).
A quasi-educated guess? The "Gingrich" voice (mine) speech was in mono, but the sound effects (ambience and applause) were in stereo, and this mono/stereo mix doesn't convert too well into Flash (or whatever it is YouTube used).
Working on the YouTube video right now...
SECOND ADDENDUM:
Deleted original video from YouTube, resubmitted. Fingers crossed.
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4/04/2007 09:28:00 AM
Sorry, righties, but the numbers don't lie.
Next time you hear a neocon mouthpiece, or Der Chimpfokker himself, decry all the pork in the Democrats' military spending bill, check out the facts for yourself.
This is the first time pork in the Defense spending bill has come in under $11 billion since Fiscal year 2002.
It's all here.
It is a rare day when the top GOP talking points are factually accurate.
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3/30/2007 10:32:00 AM
Barbara and David Mikkelson, creators of snopes.com
If you can get past the sixth-grade composition class that precedes every UL description, snopes.com ain't half bad. For the most part.
But occasionally their political bias seeps through, and - like when a toddler plays innocent after stealing away with a cookie - the whole show can be pretty funny to witness.
In the site's "what's new" section, the Mikkelsons have posted yet another letter wherein a GI's inability to distinguish between reality and his own predispositions front as propaganda. In this latest "urban legend," some chaplain complains that news media and politicians "are making it sound like Walter Reed is a terrible place and the staff here has been abusing our brave wounded soldiers."
The problem is, no politician, nor anyone in the mainstream media is saying what this officer claims they're saying. The news organizations breaking, and then covering, the Bldg 18 story have been quite responsible in clarifying the facility in question is actually outside of the WRAMC. And no politician living with 50 miles of DC could get away with such an obvious slipup.
Neither the chaplain nor the Mikkelsons are perceptive enough to have noticed the difference between their own inferences, and others' observations.
It's a lot like the Bernard Goldberg "stuff I remember noticing" brand of objectivity. For me this sort of thing underscores what I already know about the right wing - they're empirically challenged.
No mainstream news outlet has said about the Walter Reed facility what the chaplain has apparently inferred from his observations of the story. But, that doesn't matter to the Mikkelsons. They've found another path for their cookie stealing. By elevating Chaplain Kallerson's letter to "urban legend" status, the dynamic duo at snopes have allowed themselves a pattern of weaselness they probably aren't aware many of us can see right through.
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3/21/2007 11:38:00 AM
Welcome to the world of OVERSIGHT, ya dopes.
When it comes to talking points, Karl Rove and company probably learned many moons ago that it's much better to unleash Bush late with honed platitudes, than prematurely with comically mispronounced, seldom understood arguments. At 72+ hours, however, the newfangled tack is doubly delayed.
I suspect Bush isn't in the best of moods these days - no doubt more distracted than usual by those "mean" liberals and their heinous "oversight" monstrosity. There's no real mystery as to why the delay.
But, after seeing the new angle of attack, I have to think even Karl Rove is being ruinously distracted these days. Essentially, the best thing the BFEE could come up with is to say Democrats are being big bad mean partisans. That's it.
Sure, Bush's delivery of the message is more like that of a pissed off yard dog, backed into a corner, than a beaten streetfighter begging for mercy. But the message is inescapable - the DNC is playing politics, and "We ain't a-scared."
In other words, they're guilty as sin.
Obviously the BFEE is growing weak. They are shitting in their pants, and rightly so. They've finally started to get a taste of the shit they fed the Dems in the late '90s over Clinton's perjury, which, to use the neocon lingo of the day, was about "no underlying crime."
- To watch this gaggle of morons self-destruct...
- To witness what good the GOP once stood for being consumed by its own gluttony...
- To see so many on the right disown this administration...
- is it not sweet?
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3/17/2007 04:15:00 AM
It's Official - Plame was Undercover
What? The Right Wing Lied to Us?
Plame was not just undercover when Rove et al exposed her - her status was Nonofficial Cover. Basically, this status is the deepest of cover, and gives the CIA a sort of plausible deniability when it comes to acknowledging their spies. For this reason, it is technically true to say "she was not under official cover."
Note that this point is included when the right wing talking machine prevaricates Plame's status. That is, those on the right who understand the truth, and who don't make it a habit to constantly lie (I know, they're fewer and fewer anymore) won't simply say "Plame was not undercover," because that'd be a lie. What they say is, "she was not under official cover."
Again, her status was non-official cover. It's the deepest cover a spy can possess.
Naturally, the right wing idiots will keep making this spin. But, if their audience was too dumb to figure it out in the first place, they'll likely buy into the "everyone but FOX and Limbaugh are left wing liars" bullshit.
....3/17/2007 04:11:00 AM
TAKE ME OFF THE NEW BLOGGER FORMAT!
Hey, bloggercom, you're "we're switching from BETA" shit sucks ass.
I want my old blogger back. Once I signed up to try the "beta" new version, I was locked in. Now that blogger has gone "alpha" with their "Google owns us" schtick, there's no switching back.
Hosebags.
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3/08/2007 04:41:00 PM
What? Now I've got to add someone else to my Homosexual Mafia page?
In case you haven't heard, a Marine recently lauded by Shemp Hannity, CharlatAnn Coulter, and Billow Really is actually a gay porn star!
This guy kinda looks dirty and gay...
The rapture-ublicans are getting hilariouser and hilariouser by the minute! Sooooo very perceptive these clowns.
I'm telling you - the sooner the left sees how absurd the right wing talk machine is, the sooner they'll stop cowering in fear every time idiots like O'Reilly yell at them.
@#$@#$@#$@#$@#$@#$@#$@
Can you imagine Shemp Retarditty talking Sanchez up at the family dinner table the night of his encounter with the Corporal? Picture Shemp's poor family, smiling and nodding at his every platitude, his obtuse string of grade-school descriptions. "Such a great American. He's really smart. And really, really a great man. A handsome man with a really really great future. An absolute hero..."
HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
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