VOTE!

I love Sarah Silverman! Talk about using a potent mixture of facts, logic, and a liberal dose of naughty language, to make a very important point. There is no epidemic of voter fraud in this country. All of these state voter ID laws are designed to make it more difficult for people to vote. Specifically, voters that are perceived as being more likely to vote Democratic.

Now, for those who think that sounds like a "conspiracy theory", keep in mind the fact that the Romney/Ryan ticket is currently polling at 0% amongst African-Americans. So, it doesn't exactly require an advanced degree in political science to assume that blacks are going to voter overwhelmingly for Barack Obama. The GOP knows that. They knew that in 2000, and that is why Florida used those error-filled voter suppression lists to depress the black vote. And, they are doing it again, only it's a dozen or more states this time around.

Share this video, people. This is important.

Southern Strategy

Here is the dishonest ad Romney has been running accusing President Obama of "gutting" Bill Clinton's 1996 welfare reform bill. Not too difficult to figure out just what bloc of voters the Romney campaign is trying to reach with this appeal

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The ad features a white worker wiping the sweat off his brow in one frame, and the next shows President Obama with the words "Obama guts work requirement" superimposed over him. More images of workers follow, as the narrator ominously intones lines like "you don't have to work, or even train for a job" and "they just send you a check".

Unfortunately, there is a receptive audience out there for this sort of thing. Decades of conservative rhetoric have seen to that. Whites who have seen their own economic security undermined by forces beyond their control, or even comprehension, will find the racist messaging in this ad dangerously seductive. And that is exactly what Romney is banking on.

Longest War

I had a very difficult time reading this article through to the end. The demented "War on Drugs" that our government has been waging relentlessly for nearly four decades now, has fundamentally corrupted our law enforcement agencies. They are no less dependent on the income stream from illegal narcotics, then are the actual dealers.

 

“The cops, they get federal funding by the number of arrests they make—to get the money, you need the numbers,” he explained, alluding to, among other things, asset-forfeiture laws that allow police departments to keep a hefty portion of cash and other resources seized during drug busts. “It’s a commercial enterprise,” he went on, citing a view shared by many legal scholars and policy critics. “That’s how they pay for their vans, for their prosecutors—they get money from the war on drugs. They put zero dent in the supply."

There would be an outcry in this country if it were reported that Chinese, or Russian, law enforcement agencies were using Juveniles to bait dangerous criminals. Given the draconian drug laws, the cops have an enormous amount of leverage to bring to bear on these young offenders. Who typically enter into these high-risk agreements without the benefit of legal counsel, and frequently end up murdered. This is a national disgrace.

Romney and Bain

Thank You For Not Shooting Me

So, this moron decided he would test the law permitting the open-carry of handguns in Tennessee state parks. To that end he dressed up in camo, and entered a park armed with a Draco AK-47 pistol with a 30-round magazine. As the name implies, this "handgun" is nothing more then a sawed-off AK-47 with a barrel length just barely under the legal 12-inch limit for handguns. Obviously Mr. Embody here studied the law before setting out on his stunt.

Frightened people started using their cell phones to report a man in military gear with an assault rifle in the park. A brave park ranger confronted Embody, disarmed him, and made him lie down while help came. After a few minutes, it was decided that he was indeed carrying a legal handgun, and was Embody was released. Having achieved his immediate objective, Embody then filed a lawsuit claiming that his constitutional rights were violated.

This case has had the remarkable effect of actually uniting people from both sides of the gun control debate. Embody got no support from Second Amendment advocates, who immediately realized that Leonard Embody's foolish behavior has handed a priceless gift to their opponents. What an asshole. It almost makes me wish he had gotten gunned down, but a gunfight would have put innocent people at risk. And no one wants that.

Mobsters and Mormons

When ethnic "gangsters" do business the way that Bain Capital does, they are labeled as "public enemies" and prosecuted. Mitt Romney, on the other hand, is running for president. 

The difference of course is that Bain has the rule of law on their side. They do not need to resort to violence to get what they want. Bain can acquire companies, strip them of all their assets, layoff the workers, burden the companies with debt, and then walk away with millions of dollars in profit. This business model is typically described as "venture capitalism".

The mob operates in exactly the same fashion as this video demonstrates. The scale is much smaller of course. Usually, it is a restaurant they take over. But the ends, and the means, are identical. Except for the use of overt violence. The mobsters cannot appeal to the law to enforce contracts the way that Bain does. So, they resort to violence. Otherwise, the business model is exactly the same.