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Saturday, February 06, 2010
[HT: C.D.]This British magazine cartoon from the 19th Century is titled "The Bosses of the Senate." The little midgets in the foreground are U.S. Senators of that day, and behind them, with the enormous appetites, are the corporations of that day, labeled variously "Steel Beam Trust," "Copper Trust," "Nail Trust," "Standard Oil," "Iron," "Sugar," Tin," "Coal," etc cetera.
This came to me in an e-mail with the subject line filled in: "Nothing has changed since this was published."
Except, maybe it's worse. Corporations can now openly and legally buy any elected official they please.
Labels: corporate power, Senate Democrats
Friday, January 29, 2010
Oh Shut Up
Democratic Senators are shocked -- shocked! -- that they were misled by Justices Roberts and Alito in their Supreme Court confirmation hearings.Which tells you everything you need to know for understanding why the Democratic Senate is such a sump of ineptitude.
Labels: John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Senate Democrats
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Faith Healing
Trying to find some relief from marinating our noggins in the corporatocracy of Washington, D.C., and the craven Democratic Senate, and trying to avoid the growing thought that Democrats are no more capable of reform than the goddamned party of Virginia Foxx, I turn for relief to the obituary of Oral Roberts, the self-aggrandizing faith-healer of yore who died yesterday at the age of 91.When I was growing up a rawboned teenager in West Texas, the TV in our house was tuned to Oral Roberts every Sunday afternoon. My mother totally gulped that particular display of righteousness, and so did I, wishing to please my mother and, naturally, the Lord.
"Be healed!" he shouted at men and women and little children, holding them firmly by the shoulders and then striking their foreheads with his open palm. Many fell backward, dazed by the power of God or of man and suggestion, into the waiting arms of two strong men strategically positioned for that purpose.
My mother totally believed. So did I, mainly, though there was maybe an occasional wee shadow of a doubt that crept through my synapses even at that age. I had been trained to recognize doubt as the voice of Satan, nothing less. But seeing the man on crutches have his crutches confiscated after being smote on the forehead by the Reverend Roberts, yet still require the strong assistance of those two evangelistic side-men to get back off the stage, could make even a devout 14-year-old risk eternal damnation and say, "Hey, wait a minute."
Well, Oral Roberts, your version of health care is gonna be more in demand, if the Democratic Senate (a.k.a., the for-profit Insurance Industry) has its way, and equally effective, most like.
Labels: health care, Oral Roberts, Senate Democrats
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Eff Them All
The effing Senate Democrats, at the behest of effing Rahm Emanuel, are producing an effing DISASTER of a so-called reform of health insurance, while making effing Joe Lieberman the Supreme Dictator of its contents, which puts us in the effing awkward position of having to applaud the inevitable NO vote that effing Madam Virginia Foxx will cast against whatever piece of shit finally emerges from the combination of the House and Senate bills, because, probably, the effing House Democrats will capitulate too.
Labels: health care, Joe Lieberman, Rahm Emanuel, Senate Democrats, Virginia Foxx
Thursday, August 20, 2009
What He Said
Michael Moore: "As for the congressional Democrats, what a bunch of losers -- weak, scared, stupid. They had better get a clue pretty quick or the Dark Forces will return."
Labels: Michael Moore, Senate Democrats
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Distemper Shots Recommended
They're going to need a bigger kennel.
Blue Dogs in the Senate! As though we had not had enough of Democrats Who Really Feel More Comfortable with the Republican Platform.
At least Kay Hagan has so far kept her distance from this crowd.
Blue Dogs in the Senate! As though we had not had enough of Democrats Who Really Feel More Comfortable with the Republican Platform.
At least Kay Hagan has so far kept her distance from this crowd.
Labels: Kay Hagan, Senate Democrats
Friday, July 11, 2008
The Politics of Fear
"Spying on Americans without warrants or judicial approval is an abuse of government power - and that's exactly what this [FISA Amendments Act of 2008] allows. The ACLU will not sit by and let this evisceration of the Fourth Amendment go unchallenged. Electronic surveillance must be conducted in a constitutional manner that affords the greatest possible protection for individual privacy and free speech rights. The new wiretapping law fails to provide fundamental safeguards that the Constitution unambiguously requires."
--ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero, announcing the lawsuit filed to block implementation of the FISA Amendments Act
The FISA Amendments Act of 2008, passed by Senate Democrats on Wednesday and signed by President Bush yesterday, not only legalizes the secret warrantless surveillance program the president approved in late 2001, but it also gives the government new spying powers, including the power to conduct dragnet surveillance of Americans' international communications.
Gutless Democrats, who voted for this abomination:
Baucus of Montana
Bayh of Indiana
Carper of Delaware
Casey of Pennsylvania
Conrad of North Dakota
Feinstein of California
Inouye of Hawaii
Johnson of South Dakota
Kohl of Wisconsin
Landrieu of Louisiana
Lincoln of Arkansas
McCaskill of Missouri
Mikulski of Maryland
Nelson of Florida
Nelson of Nebraska
Obama of Illinois
Pryor of Arkansas
Rockefeller of West Virginia
Salazar of Colorado
Webb of Virginia
Whitehouse of Rhode Island
We've already expressed our anger with the winning Democratic presidential nominee. We note that all the other Democratic senators who ran for president this year voted against this assault on our Constitution ... Clinton, Biden, Dodd, and the nominee of 2004, John Kerry.
We're giving what money we have to give to the ACLU. At least they're willing to stand up for freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution.
Labels: American Civil Liberties Union, Barack Obama, FISA, Senate Democrats
