On the menu at the WHCD tonight: Trump

Both Obama and Seth Meyers ripped on Trump who was at the Washington Post table. Trump didn't seem to enjoy the show, but most of those in attendance did.

Obama also cracked some goodies about Batshit Bachmann and every other jackass thinking of running as the GOP candidate.

I loved it. Nothing makes me happier than someone bitchslapping The Donald around and he can't do a damn thing about it.

Are Rick Snyder's days numbered? We can only hope they are.

Warms the cockles of my lil black heart! Reuters has the good news:

A group seeking to force new Michigan Governor Rick Snyder into a recall election cleared a first hurdle on Friday when an election panel approved the proposed wording on petitions seeking voter support. 

Michigan Citizens United would have to amass more than 800,000 signatures, or 25 percent of the votes cast in Republican Snyder's election in November, within a 90 day period to put the question to a vote at the next election.

Voters in Michigan can file a recall petition six months after Snyder's term began under Michigan law, unlike Wisconsin where petitioners must wait at least a year into new Republican Governor Scott Walker's term to start a recall bid.

Nothing would scare the shit out of the GOP more than Snyder being ousted.

Allen West has Nicole Sandler arrested at his town hall.

Allen West is the Congressional asshole that blames liberal women for everything wrong with America. From Cenk's Young Turks, the video:


Interestingly enough, GOP Town Halls, are run totally different when they sense pissed off constituents in the crowd. Boy howdy, it's not like those TH's when the HCR bill was being debated eh gents? Does it make you a little scared? I hope so, you corporate ass kissing bags of batshit.

A shoutout to EZKool for this video and his writeup on this fuckery, and to George Winston for linking to it on Facebook.

Petraeus will friggin run what??

I kinda get Leon Panetta's new job as Sec of Defense, but David Petraeus' appointment to head the CIA just leaves a sour taste in my mouth, among other things.

What the hell? No one else wanted the damn job? Steve Clemons makes this connection:

Watch for Petraeus to focus on modifying the CIA's role in supporting counter-insurgency challenges and drone-heavy terrorist disruption campaigns.

Oh goody...that makes me feel real warm and fuzzy.. NOT.

Panetta is one of those career politicians..the non-elected variety. ThinkProgress, via The Hill has this to say about Leon as the new SecDef:

President Obama’s decision to nominate Leon Panetta to be the next Secretary of Defense may signal steep defense cuts are on the way. While current Secretary Robert Gates has been largely unwilling to rethink the size of the defense budget, Panetta is expected to carry out the president’s goal of cutting $400 billion from defense spending over the next 12 years.

Whatever, they never really cut defense spending, I don't give a shit who says it.

As for General Davy, putting his ass in charge of the CIA is the militarization of that department in a more obvious fashion. As Glen Greenwald puts it A more militarized CIA for a more militarized America, and I agree:

Of course, like so many Democratic objections to Bush policies, that was then and this is now. Yesterday, President Obama announced -- to very little controversy -- that he was nominating Gen. David Petraeus to become the next CIA Director. The Petraeus nomination raises all the same concerns as the Hayden nomination did, but even more so: Hayden, after all, had spent his career in military intelligence and Washington bureaucratic circles and thus was a more natural fit for the agency; by contrast, Petraues is a pure military officer and, most of all, a war fighting commander with little background in intelligence. But in the world of the Obama administration, Petraeus' militarized, warrior orientation is considered an asset for running the CIA, not a liability.

That's because the CIA, under Obama, is more militarized than ever, as devoted to operationally fighting wars as anything else, including analyzing and gathering intelligence. This morning's Washington Post article on the Petraeus nomination -- headlined: "Petraeus would helm an increasingly militarized CIA" -- is unusual in presenting such a starkly forthright picture of how militarized the U.S. has become under the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner:


Gen. David H. Petraeus has served as commander in two wars launched by the United States after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. If confirmed as the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Petraeus would effectively take command of a third -- in Pakistan.

Petraeus's nomination comes at a time when the CIA functions, more than ever in its history, as an extension of the nation's lethal military force.

CIA teams operate alongside U.S. special operations forces in conflict zones from Afghanistan to Yemen. The agency has also built up a substantial paramilitary capability of its own. But perhaps most significantly, the agency is in the midst of what amounts to a sustained bombing campaign over Pakistan using unmanned Predator and Reaper drones.

Since Obama took office there have been at least 192 drone missile strikes, killing as many as 1,890 militants, suspected terrorists and civilians. Petraeus is seen as a staunch supporter of the drone campaign, even though it has so far failed to eliminate the al-Qaeda threat or turn the tide of the Afghan war. .

Shit, just when you hope Obama will pull his militaristic head out of his ass...he shoves in up there even further.

To Donald Trump: Cracker Please!!!!!

It also goes out to all those other white men (GOP Congressmen, leaders of the teabaggers) that still find something tobe ignorant about when it comes to our duly elected Half-African/Black President, Barack Obama and his residency or now, gawd help us...as the asshole named Trump has brought up...his college transcripts. When will upstanding GOP members tell these fuckers to sit down and shut the hell up?

Yes, Cracker is a derisive, racist term for white folks. SO? You have a problem with me using a racist term for these racists? WHY? I am using a term that they would understand, at least one would think that speaking in racist terms to people so racist themselves, would make their point very very clear to these imbeciles...but I digress.

The Grio.com has a wonderful OpEd today on this subject and how in over 200 years we have NEVER asked this type of information from one of our duly elected sitting Presidents. Goldie Taylor, I love and respect you woman.She talks about how Black Men had to show 'their papers' in 1899..what has changed? She put those stupid, intellectually-retarded white men in their place. No one did it as well as she did today on Rachel Maddow's show this evening or even better, read her entire written piece at TheGrio. Is is SO WORTH IT.

How dare they. How dare they even have the balls to bring up such fuckery, in public no less.

Our entire nation should be ashamed, and embarrassed that the men represent us in some form or fashion, or in Donald's case..want to. Below is a section of Goldies OpEd. When MSNBC makes it available, I will post her visual readiing of part of her piece:

This morning, as White House staffers released copies of the president's long form birth certificate, I couldn't shake the feeling that something very ugly was going on. For the first time in recorded history, a sitting president of the United States found it necessary to produce his original birth certificate for public inspection. Not once, in 235 years, have we ever demanded proof that our president was born on American soil. 

In a stunning display of unchecked ego, Donald Trump quickly hosted a news conference, during which he took credit for forcing President Obama's hand. The sometime real estate developer, socialite, author and television personality went on to caution onlookers to let "experts" examine the document. Lest the president continue perpetrating was Trump has called potentially the "biggest fraud in American history."

It's a fantastic read, she makes them all look and sound as stupid, fucked-up and ridiculous as they are. She says it the way it needs to be said....to these assholes that have nothing better to do than defame our sitting President who was elected by a decent majority of the voting public.

The racist bastards will still command their time in the media. And our corporate media will give it to them.

How fucked up is that? The media will do it without putting them in THEIR place...that place is stunning ignorance and blatant racism that is dressed up as something valid...which couldn't be farther from the truth.. Validity is something their bulllshittery has none of. It's all dressed up but when you remove those trappings all you see is racism at it's best...or really...its worst. For all the world to witness in living-fucking-color.


Goldie on Maddow when it's available. .Update: Its available!

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Will the Birthers now crawl back under their rocks? See it in all it's glory!!! The real thang!

Will Trump take a long walk on a very short pier with leg weights attached to his ankles? Will the 76% of ignorant republicans who believed this whole stupid-ass conspiracy theory get a fucking clue and come back to this planet?

Of course not. They will find something else to bitch and moan about.They will develop a new conspiracy. The Muslim one will find a way to stay alive...wanna bet? Palin and Beck are already lining up a new conspiracy about why Obama picked today to release his birth certificate, bless their fuckwitted asses.

Obama should of let them keep believing the bullshit but no, he went and had his long form birth certificate released. Fucking party pooper. He needed to wait until at least right before the General Election..seriously...so we all could get a good laugh over this.

President Obama's Long Form Birth Certificate

View more documents from White House

Here is Tweety today, ripping two of the idiot Birther's who still will not give Obama his due. Pathetic fuckers...

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Santorum makes Hannity's point for him.

Recently Hannity waxed poetic about how the Media paints the GOP as hateful, evil and stupid.Video accompanies the writeup.

Ricky Santorum made Hannity's point for him by saying the LGBT community has enough rights and doesn't deserve anymore when Chris Wallace interviewed him Sunday. Chris calls him...a cultural warrior. Oh gag me for christs sake.

It's hard to keep a straight face when talking about these two fuckwads, really it is.You either want to slap the taste right out of their mouth's or shake your head at their glaring, ample and very stunning ignorance.

They remind me of Abbott and Costello, but sadly... not in a good, belly laugh sort of way.

If you actually want to watch Santorum keep a straight face whilst slamming the LGBT community, click here.  But it might ruin the rest of your day, so use caution.

Federal Court of Appeals reinstates Blackwater murder trials.

From the Blog of the Legal Times:

A federal appeals court today reinstated the prosecution of a group of Blackwater security guards charged in Washington with manslaughter and weapons violations for their alleged roles in a shooting in Baghdad that killed more than a dozen civilians. 

In December 2009, Judge Ricardo Urbina of U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed the Justice Department prosecution of five guards, saying the prosecution was tainted through the improper use of compelled statements the defendants made to investigators following the shooting in September 2007. DOJ appealed the ruling. 

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit unanimously reversed Urbina’s decision, sending the case back to the trial court for further hearings. The appeals court’s 17-page redacted opinion is here. (The court simultaneously filed a confidential opinion under seal. The court heard oral argument in a closed session in February.)

Eat shit, you worthless fuckers..I hope you lose and pay the price for killing unarmed civilians, once and for all. This case has been going on for-fucking-ever. Click the Blackwater label or start here for this blog's coverage of the fuckery. 

Cesar Chavez's mission is still sadly relevant today.

Tomorrow marks the 18th anniversary of his passing. With the GOP-led red states trying to kill unions and the GOP-led Congress trying to neuter the power of the EPA (EPA reconsidering toxic pesticide methyl iodide,sign the petition), and the heat deaths of farm workers here in the San Joaquin valley and other agricultural areas, remembering Chavez's work takes on a bigger significance. From the Valley Advocate, an article this year on the topic of worker safety:

Also, and less surprisingly, on the list of high-risk jobs: farm work. According to a 2009 report from the BLS, the agricultural, forestry, fishing and hunting sectors had a combined 26 workplace fatalities per 100,000 workers, higher than the rate in any other industry, including mining, transportation and warehousing, and construction. The health and safety risks faced by farm workers are caused by chemical exposure, heavy machinery and hand tools, livestock, toxic gases, and weather conditions such as extreme cold and heat, according to OSHA. In California alone, a reported 13 farm workers have died from heat-related causes since 2005, despite heat safety regulations introduced that year.

The risks inherent in farm work are heightened by several factors, Woeppel writes, starting with high-pressure quota systems on large farm operations. In the rush to meet those quotas, field workers may be denied rest or water breaks, or may cut corners when working with machinery. In addition, she writes, while farm workers have a legal right to information about toxic substances they are working with, that notification often falls by the wayside. (Woeppel cites a 2001 study from the American Journal of Industrial Medicine that found that fewer than half of workers surveyed had been notified by their employer about the risks of a pesticide they were using.)

Growers fight to keep any and all farm worker deaths from being classified correctly. I know, what a shocker...and even when the farm is found responsible for a worker's death like that of Maria Isavel Vasquez Jimenez, law enforcement doesn't play fair in dealing with these murderers as they cut deals with them to avoid jail time.

Chavez realized that his mission was important on many fronts, especially Pesticide use and of course organizing workers and their safety on the job..which takes a back seat to productivity:

"The fight is never about grapes or lettuce. It is always about people."
"Farm workers are society's canaries. They demonstrate the effects of pesticide poisoning before anyone else."

Words have power, even from beyond the grave. Thank you Cesar for a lifetime of work that still has as much relevance today as it did 30 plus years ago. Farmworkers still are not protected like other workers, contrary to popular belief. Below is an Edward R. Murrow report that could be about today's farmworkers.


California's Harvest of Shame from California Assembly Access on Vimeo.

Sports and Politics collide in Los Angeles.

I must start out by saying I hate the Dodgers, being a Padres fan and all...but that said..the drama currently unfolding in LA brings together two of my favorite topics..sports and politics.

Frank McCourt should of never been allowed to buy the Dodgers in the first place, seven years ago. One of the most storied franchises in all of sports, McCourt has nickle and dimed the team into a hot mess, so hot in fact, that Major League Baseball has taken over running the franchise. McCourt probably won't be smart enough to let them do it as he is screaming "I'm gonna sue" from the top of his lungs. Like the asshole doesn't have enough lawsuits going right now, suing his old lawyers with a new crop of lawyers and still fighting in court with his now ex-wife about giving her half the team, which the courts have deemed she deserves since his ridiculous post-nuptial agreement was tossed in divorce court last year.

Season ticket sales have fallen off by 40%. Attendance also continues to dip each and every year that fucknut has owned them.He has spent less and less on talent each year he has owned them as well. But to listen to Frankie talk, HE is the brand name and the Dodgers are just 'the product'. From the Yahoo link:

Years ago employees were advised by the McCourts to consider the McCourts the brand and the Dodgers the product, and to sell the two as such, and in that order. 

They said it a lot, too. Though, to be fair, they fired so many people there were always new people to educate on the subtleties of McCourt-onomics. 

Selig, by recent weeks, simply had had enough. The team he once delivered to the McCourts was now in ruins. The McCourt empire, such as it is, looked to Selig like it was in the same condition. The two were going down together, up to their necks in debt and divorce and empty promises to clean it all up. And Selig had grown weary of opening letters from distraught and livid Dodgers season-ticket holders, the few that remain. 

So, on Tuesday, he drafted a letter to Frank and had it overnighted. He followed it up with an e-mail.

Your baseball team now belongs to me, was its message. You spend not a dollar before it is cleared by my man on the ground, who will have an office in your stadium. 

Presumably, it will not be Jamie’s old office, though Jamie voiced her support for Selig undoing a mess she’s half-responsible for making.

Before he bought the Dodgers, McCourt tried to buy the Boston Red Sox, his beloved childhood team. His egotistical ass was laughed out of town for even considering that thought.  As someone that lived in Beantown and adores the BoSox to this day, I breathed a sigh of relief when the Yawkeys told him to take a fucking hike and sold the team to three guys that know and loved baseball, John Henry, Tom Werner and Larry Lucchino, who also knew how to run a team and how to make money with one of the oldest and revered franchises in the sport...two things Frankie McCourt doesn't know anything about apparently as the Dodgers qualify on both those counts as well. Again from the Yahoo link on what a boffo owner McCourt has been during his tenure there:

Well. This, you should know, is not only about McCourt’s inability to make payroll last week, for which he secured a $30 million loan from Fox, as the Los Angeles Times reported. Nor is it only about firing the security chief just before he let all the people into his building. Nor is it only about funding his divorce through season-ticket and beer sales. Nor is it only about a team that sometimes looks like it should be in Pittsburgh and not the second-largest market in the country.
This is about all of it, every stinkin’ inch McCourt has taken, when he should have given two. 

This is about a franchise that can’t know how it will live tomorrow, since it never thinks about tomorrow, since it’s already borrowed against all of tomorrow’s money. This is about an owner securing a $30 million loan, using as collateral the settlement he expects to win from suing his own former attorneys at Boston’s Bingham McCutchen, which drafted the faulty marital property agreement. And then about being so desperate to take a below-value television deal in L.A, potentially devaluing other owners’ future contracts in places that aren’t L.A.

Frankie's name is shit right now in Baseball and it rightfully should be. This man is an idiot of the highest order and for him to even consider going up against Major League Baseball when he has most likely pissed away any money he could even hope to recover with a sale of the Dodgers, it just shows how self-centered he is, and that he doesn't have the best interests of his team at heart. Which means only two things to me:

He's lower than pond scum and not a true baseball fan. The second reason alone is enough to run his ass out of town on a rail, or at the very least tar and feather him, using of course pine tar, in my humble yet vocal opinion. Because even if I hate the team,competitively speaking, I love and respect the franchise...and their rich history doesn't need to be screwed up by the likes of Frank McCourt's litigious, financially ignorant dumbass.  The best quote about McCourt can be found in the Yahoo writeup:

“Dig a pothole in the middle of your street, fill it with sewer water, and within hours Frank McCourt would walk along and step in it.”

I rest my case....

OK passes law to restrict Westboro protests.

Not a single elected member of the state voted against this bill. My son lives outside of McAlester, so this issue has been one that I have followed from the start. From RawStory:

Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin signed a bill into law Monday that restricts members of the Westboro Baptist Church from protesting at military funerals. 

The new law, introduced by Republican State Senator Josh Brecheen, prohibits protests two hours before or after a funeral. It also restricts protesters from being within 1,000 feet of a funeral, up from 500 feet under a previous law. 

"Protesting a funeral for political purposes is an abhorrent and disgusting practice," Fallin said. "While such distasteful protests have been ruled constitutionally protected and cannot be legally prohibited, this legislation will help protect grieving families from people who are looking to exploit their suffering." 

Not a single Oklahoma lawmaker from either house of the state legislature voted against the bill. 

In November 2010, angry residents slashed the tires on the church's van after they picketed the funeral of a McAlester, Oklahoma soldier. Police said the Westboro Baptists were unable to find anyone in town who would repair their vehicle.

So, fuck you very much Freddy Phelps and your sick friends and relatives too. Hopefully this will save city, county and state funds as law enforcement was forced to protect these sick fucks when they showed up every month in retaliation for the slashed tires during their first picketing session in McAlester.

Pulitzer Prize journalism winners announced.

ProPublica is in there again this year!!! From the Pulitzer website:

Journalism

PUBLIC SERVICE - Los Angeles Times

BREAKING NEWS REPORTING - No Award

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING - Paige St. John of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune

EXPLANATORY REPORTING - Mark Johnson, Kathleen, Gallagher, Gary Porter, Lou Saldivar and Alison Sherwood of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

LOCAL REPORTING - Frank Main, Mark Konkol and John J. Kim of the Chicago Sun-Times

NATIONAL REPORTING - Jesse Eisinger and Jake Bernstein of ProPublica

INTERNATIONAL REPORTING - Clifford J. Levy and Ellen Barry of The New York Times

FEATURE WRITING - Amy Ellis Nutt of The Star-Ledger, Newark, N.J.

COMMENTARY - David Leonhardt of The New York Times

CRITICISM - Sebastian Smee of The Boston Globe

EDITORIAL WRITING - Joseph Rago of The Wall Street Journal

EDITORIAL CARTOONING - Mike Keefe of The Denver Post

BREAKING NEWS PHOTOGRAPHY - Carol Guzy, Nikki Kahn and Ricky Carioti of The Washington Post

FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHY - Barbara Davidson of the Los Angeles Times

How's that transparency thing working out for ya Obama?

Because your U.S. Dept of Education is so full of shit, everyone that works there should have brown eyes. From CREW:

Recall that in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from CREW and then only after CREW filed a lawsuit, the U.S. Department of Education produced approximately 1900 pages of emails. These emails documented efforts by Wall Street investors to influence the outcome of Education’s regulation of the for-profit education industry, and the close ties between top Education officials and many in the non-profit education world.  

Education claimed to have produced all its records. CREW disagreed, pointing out in a legal brief the myriad ways in which Education’s search clearly was deficient.

As Education now admits, CREW was right. Today, Education admitted to the court there are other documents. In fact, a new search uncovered approximately 10,000 new emails. Ten thousand – five times more than the agency’s initial (and far from complete) production. We can only wonder what this new stash of emails will reveal, but we will know soon enough. Education promises CREW will have them all in hand by April 22. Stay tuned.

It really jerks my chain how it doesn't seem to matter what party is sitting their fat ass in the Oval Office...they all lie and hide whatever they can when they see a FOIA request coming in.

Marilyn Davenport swims in the cesspool again.

And that's putting it nicely. If I wanted to get ugly all over that worthless bag of shit, I would call her a racist cunt. That this isn't the first time Davenport has sent racist emails to family and friends and now that one of them outed her, she refuses to resign her post, it really does make one wonder if she has the IQ of a dandelion.

Update-Davenport has finally said she's sorry. BFD. She also threw in the Christian crazy bullshit card calling her dumbass "an imperfect Christian lady" and quoted the Bible in asking for forgiveness. 

And this skank is a 'big wig' in one of the many Tea Party organizations..and..an official GOP representative... You just Gotta love it! I think Martin Bashir said it so nicely...I just had to share a civilized view of this bag of trash people call Marilyn Davenport.

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Palin, Breitbart booed in WI

Warms the cockles of my little black heart it does! Andy couldn't handle the boo's so he told them all to go to hell...nice comeback asshole, is that the best you got? From The Progressive:

It was fun to be at the Madison capitol today to protest Sarah Palin and the tea partiers. 

There were about 1,500 tea partiers, many bused in by Americans for Prosperity, the rightwing group funded by the Koch brothers. 

The tea partiers were surrounded by about 3,000 or more pro-labor supporters, who let their presence be felt with raucous chants and boos and cries of “Shame, shame, shame!”

Palin had to talk over all the cat calls being leveled at her dumb ass. As per her usual, she recited most of the regular teabagger talking points. AndyB was his usual batshit self as well. Kudo's to RawStory for the video. It's worth the click to go over and watch it.

Sunday Morning....

I ain't a big fan of country music, but I do love Kris Kristofferson's version of Sunday Morning Coming Down. Seeing as how Mr. Kristofferson is a very smart man (Rhodes Scholar) who could of done anything he wanted with his life, but he chose music which kinda makes me smile like the old Cheshire cat.



I like to listen to it as I read all the fuckery that is happening in the world. I figure it keeps me from stroking out at the computer. Can't have the Ball n' Chain finding me slumped over with my face on the keyboard, it would ruin his whole friggin day, and Sunday's are the best sports day of the week ya know. ;)

Today's number: 12

That number represents the top 12 Corporations that not only don't pay taxes, and actually get a refund check from the IRS. So, lets look at a few of these fuckers and how they keep all their money and take some of our money in the form of tax rebates by using a new report put out by PublicCampaign.Org.

Twelve large American corporations have been identified by news reports, nonprofit organizations, and elected officials as paying little or no federal income taxes. Collectively, these one dozen corporate tax dodgers have benefited dramatically – in tax loopholes, bailouts, and subsidies – from the more than $1 billion dollars they have invested into influencing Washington. As Americans pay their taxes this month, it is important to understand that our political system lets these corporations off the hook while the rest of us foot the bill.

Ah yes...loopholes and lobbying, why it's the American Way people! First one on the OIL list is ExxonMobil:

Quick Facts on ExxonMobil
Campaign Contributions: Total Over 10 Years (2001-2010), $5.7 million
Lobbying Expenditures: Total Over 10 Years (2001-2010), $138 million
Government Contracts: $840 million in 2008; $6.8 billion from 2000-2008
Profits in 2009: $19 billion
Taxes Paid for 2009: $0
Tax Rebate for 2009: $156 million

Well, I guess that nice little tax rebate probably paid for most of their lobbying, with a few million left over to hand  out to their top execs. Now, lets look at the top bank that royally fucked us over AND got a lovely parting gift in the form of Bailout Funds to boot ...Bank of America:

Quick Facts on Bank of America
Campaign Contributions: Total Over 10 Years (2001-2010), $11 million
Lobbying Expenditures: Total Over 10 Years (2001-2010), $24 million
Bailout Funds: $20 billion to save itself, $25 billion to buy Merrill Lynch, $118 in loan guarantees
Profits in 2010: $4.4 billion
Tax Refund for 2010: $1.9 billion

Gee, I really think BofA should be the top dog in screwing us over as they got a tax refund and bailout funds as well. The third group is known as the Transportation group. Their top carpetbaggin fuck is....drumroll please...Boeing:

Quick Facts on Boeing
Campaign Contributions: Total Over 10 Years (2001-2010), $10 million
Lobbying Expenditures: Total Over 10 Years (2001-2010), $115 million
Government Contracts: $24 billion in 2008; $169 billion from 2000-2008. Recently received $35 billion contract from Pentagon.
Taxes Paid in 2010: $0
Tax Refund in 2010: $124 million

All those nice government contracts, zero paid in taxes and a beautiful tax refund to boot. What more could they ask for? Next is the Telecom and Technology groups:

Quick Facts on Verizon
Campaign Contributions: Total Over 10 Years (2001-2010), $12 million
Lobbying Expenditures: Total Over 10 Years (2001-2010), $131 million
Government Contracts: $488 million in 2008; $5.1 billion from 2000-2008
Profits in 2010: $12 billion
Taxes Paid for Last 2 Years: $0

Verizon's CEO must be very very happy, wouldn't you think? After all, they fucked us on lots of different levels.Their campaign contributions round out to roughly 1.2 million a year.

Shared sacrifice my brown ass. None of these batshit bastards share, they just take and take and then pay off all those lovely Congress Critters. I guess you could say they share with their bought and paid for Congress Critters, they sure as hell aren't sharing with us, the taxpayers.

Obama said yesterday that he wants to tax the rich...he needs to start with taxing The Corporatocracy, and shit-canning all those loopholes they use to fuck us over..all the while, with a smile on their faces and cute commercials about how they give back by helping Main Street.

Why Paul Ryan's budget is total bullshit.

He relies on the Heritage Foundation for all his 'projections'. The Heritage Foundation is of course supported by Big Oil, Big Pharma, Insurance companies, rich rightwing patrons and the likes of Phillip Morris..just to name some of the many corporate sponsors.

The Shrub, aka George Bush,also relied heavily on the Heritage Foundation's economic forecasting models. We all know how well that shit worked out, but let's look at it again, from AmericanProgress.org;

Anyone can make an economic forecasting model. But the true measure of a model’s worth is how accurately it forecasts future economic developments. Before looking at what their model predicts for the Ryan budget proposal, it’s important to understand how well this model has performed in the past. Heritage analyzed the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts using a similar dynamic scoring methodology. In 2001 they predicted that if the Bush tax cuts were implemented, between FY 2002 and FY 2011 income for a family of four would increase by $4,544, investment in our economy would grow 1.9 percent a year, gross domestic product would grow by an average of 3.3 percent per year, more than 1.6 million more jobs would be added, and the unemployment rate would average to 4.7 percent over the 10-year period. But that’s not what happened. 

In fact, the period following the Bush tax cuts yielded one of the worst economic performances, as investment growth, employment, and output were slower than in any other economic recovery in the post-World War II era. Further, rather than growing by nearly $5,000, for the first time in any economic recovery since the end of World War II, our nation’s middle-class families saw their incomes fall after factoring for inflation. 

The actual feeble performance of our economy under the Bush-era tax cuts was a far cry from what the Heritage Foundation’s economic model had predicted. Take, for example, Heritage’s 2001 forecasts for job creation and GDP growth effects from the Bush tax cuts. To measure the effect of the Bush tax-cut policies, Heritage’s forecasts and actual economic performance are compared to a baseline scenario of what would have happened in the absence of any policy changes. Heritage’s model did not fare well in predicting the job-creation effect of the Bush tax cuts (see Figure 1).

There are so many more reasons why the neocons at the Heritage Foundation can't predict shit, so I suggest reading the AmericanProgress piece I linked above for more reasons why no one with two brains cells to rub together would buy into their projections.

Paulie also plans on screwing the middle and lower classes even more and calling it tax reform.  

He also plans on dumping the Medicare load on the elderly and he wants to do away with the entire program....all the while giving the rich an even bigger tax break than they have now...what a guy eh? The winners and losers are laid out here (pdf) by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). 

What a Slimey fuck. 

Fed Court dismisses MetroPCS, Verizon suit over new net neutrality rules.

From Jurist:

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Monday granted a motion by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to dismiss a challenge to the new net neutrality rules. Verizon and MetroPCS filed an appeal challenging the new net neutrality rules that allow the government to regulate Internet traffic to preserve the Internet as a free and open platform of communication. The court dismissed the appeal for improper timing because the challenged rulemaking document has yet to be published in the Federal Register and is not a licensing decision with respect to the specific parties as required by 47 CFR § 1.4(b)(1). The court said it would be subject to judicial review once it is published in the Federal Register. Verizon spokesperson Ed McFadden said that the notices of appeal were filed because the FCC's rules governing timing of appeals were unclear and the company did not want to lose its right to appeal. Verizon plans to file a second appeal when the rules are published in the Federal Register. 

Verizon and MetroPCS filed the challenges in January out of concern over the broad authority the new rules would grant the FCC. The FCC has long been trying to exert more control over Internet regulation. Last year, US Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) introduced legislation intended to block the FCC from implementing its National Broadband Plan. The Freedom for Consumer Choice Act would remove the FCC's ability to declare the actions of a communications provider illegal unless there was a clear showing that the practice causes harm to consumers and will not be corrected by market forces. A month earlier, the FCC opened a new proceeding to identify the legal approach that will best support its efforts to develop universal access to "high quality" Internet broadband services. A previous court ruling found that the FCC lacks the power to enforce net neutrality. Net neutrality is thought by supporters to be essential to the goal of an open flow of information over the Internet regardless of the amount of revenue generated by the information.

Of course DeMint tried to undermine the FCC's authority, I would expect nothing less from that corporate lackey.

Personal update...still tryng to rehab ye olde back after my surgery two weeks ago. I am not spending much time online as sitting is the worst possible thing for my spine, according to my Doc and my back also lets me know it too. As a lovely parting gift I now have an 8 inch scar up my back and wearing that friggin huge back brace (for 3 months) is no picnic.

Transocean wins safety award...Are you friggin kidding me?

Transocean owns the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded,  killing 11 workers. From RawStory:

It's still too soon to say exactly who was to blame for the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf last year, but already rig owner Transocean is congratulating itself for its safety record, and dishing out the bonuses.

In federal filings revealed over the weekend by The Wall Street Journal, Transocean claims that the horrific accident in the Gulf aside, the company had in 2010 the best safety record in its history.

In spite of this claim, nine of the 11 workers killed on the Deepwater Horizon rig were Transocean employees. Still, the company said, calculating the number of work hours by the total number of accidents, they had fewer injuries than at any other point in the company's history.

Transocean and business partners BP and Halliburton all blame one another in the Deepwater Horizon disaster, which was still under investigation.

As expected, TransOcean did not announce the bonus amounts. If nothing else, this award is in bad taste in the aftermath of the explosion that took so many innocent lives. .

WI recall effort, 1st GOP casualty is Dan Kapanke

http://www.recalltherepublican8.com/

The jerkwad republicans in WI should be drinking a boatload of Maalox this morning as one of their own is now on the recall chopping block. From Slate:

The western Wisconsin Republican, who unsuccessfully challenged Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis. last year, is the first state senator who'll have to fight a recall petition. The Democrats announce:

Now, Kapanke has no choice but to know that the working families of Wisconsin will be heard.
As for the seven other Republicans who have joined with Walker, they will know soon what Kapanke knows, that when Wisconsin's working families speak, you should take care to listen.

Kapanke has 10 days after the filing to challenge signatures. If enough petitions are found to be valid, there will be an primary election six Tuesdays after that decision; four weeks that, there will be a general election.

Do they hear those footsteps heading into the registrars office? I hope to fuck they do.