Submitted by Lawrence Rafferty, (rafflaw), Guest Blogger
Since Professor Turley is snowbound in the Winter Wonderland, the weekend warriors are back to bring your blood pressure up!
I have been critical of the Right Wing Mass Media for its continual banging of the drum of hate towards President Obama and the Democrats in general. Now, there are times that the Democrats and President Obama should be called on the carpet. For instance, for not confronting the Bush torture crowd and for claiming that the President has the authority to kill American citizens without due process, just to name a couple. However, the civility that President Obama has asked for in his latest speeches, have gone unheeded by many on the Right and some on the Left.
We all succumb to the emotion at times and say things that we shouldn’t, but the Right seems to carry these statements to an extreme and they are unapologetic for it. Yesterday, fans of Rush Limbaugh faxed death threats to California State Representative and San Francisco Mayoral candidate, Leland Yee, because Lee had requested Rush to apologize for Rush’s ill-tempered and racially charged comments about the Chinese President during his recent visit to the United States. Rush mocked President Hu Jintao’s speech and Mr. Yee “..said Limbaugh owes the Chinese community an apology for his “pointless and ugly offense.” ‘. http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/crime/2011/01/leland-yee-receives-racist-death-threat
You can guess the result of State Rep. Lee’s request for an apology from Rush Limbaugh. He continued his rant and mocked Rep. Lee on the next program. I know some of you will want to know why the authorities believe that Rush’s fans are behind the death threats. Take a look at one of the faxes on the link below and you will understand. Rep. Lee received similar threats in April of last year that are also being investigated.
I would put the fax on here, but the language is a bit “rough”. See below for a link to the faxes in question. Those who continue to voice their ugly rhetoric in the mass media have a responsibility for the result of that rhetoric. I for one think they are getting the response that they are looking for. What do you think?
http://www.sfexaminer.com/files/blog_files/Yee%20threat%20flier.pdf
Submitted by Lawrence Rafferty, (rafflaw), Guest Blogger
Gyges,
I liked the live action version too, but American Maid could kick Captain Liberty’s butt, Die Fledermaus could outrun (away) Batmanuel any day of the week and Urchin was the apotheosis of cool (in the sewers, anyway…) not to mention, as you did earlier, the wisdom of Handy (READ A BOOK CHAN!). And you should give props to the comic books, too – one of my favorite scenes from the Tick is where a bag of presents gets blown into the air and the children joyously turn their faces towards the rain of toys from above – then the Tonka trucks start falling…
To mix Ticks (I’ve got a soft spot for both the live action and the cartoon):
Destiny dressed you this morning and now fear is trying to pull your pants off, and if you let it, you’ll be standing there naked with fear laughing at your dangling unmentionable bits.
“And so he says to me, ‘You wanna be a bad guy?’ And I say, ‘Yeah, baby! I wanna be bad!’ I said, ‘Shirts up, Space Ponies! I’m making gravy without the lumps!’ Ah-hahahahaha! He says to me, he says to me, ‘You got style, baby! But if you want to be a real villain, you gotta get a gimmick!'”
NOT IN THE FACE!!!!
“So he says tell me I’m wrong…and I say I can’t baby; cause you’re not.”
Sometimes there is simply no substitute for the clarity of The Tick.
“Spooooooon!”
Chan,
“You socialist nit wits were doing the same thing during the Great Depression, all those Ivy League educated dumb asses inflicting socialist drivel on the rest of us. Prolonging the depression and causing WWII.”
The only response that statement really deserves is derisive laughter. While it may be comforting to have a boogie man you get to blame every single bad thing on, to the rest of us you look like that crazy uncle that spends all of Thanksgiving talking about how vapor trails left by jets are caused by aliens who are using them to spray the Earth with chemicals that will cause human sterility.
In closing let me just say:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1uc7ohS7cU&w=480&h=390]
FYI
From the Pulitzer Org. prizes in journalism:
“2006 — Public Service” category:
“From blue tarps to debris removal, layers of contractors drive up the cost of recovery, critics say.
Top-tier contractors say it’s the only way to get the work done.
By: Gordon Russell and James Varney
Staff writers
December 29, 2005”
http://www.pulitzer.org/archives/7090
You probably haven’t even kissed a girl much less lived through a natural disaster, so you can just suck it on the topic of Katrina. You don’t have the proper frame of reference to be qualified to have an opinion on that issue, boy. No life experience and not enough book or common sense to know what the Hell you are talking about. But as penance for your greedy ignorance? I certainly do hope you get the chance to acquire the proper perspective. Soon even.
You represent the kind of people who try to exploit EVERYTHING for profit, including disasters Like the private “contractors” FEMA used instead of doing the jobs themselves and using the military – like Carter set them up to do until every greedy GOP neo-con goon to come down the pike neutered the agency by insisting on using contractors instead of government resources and hobbling the process so that when FEMA did work as it was designed, they could take personal credit for something they had jacksquat to do with in reality. Political opportunists and contractors who overcharged, sold toxic trailers and contracted for jobs which they then skipped town on once payment was made. You know. Your people: the greedy sociopaths of the world.
As to Obama? Maybe you’re just hard of reading, but I think he’s an unconstitutional criminal for declaring that he can assassinate American citizens without due process. Bad mouth him all you want. He’s just another greedy self-interested graft pig. He’s also no more a socialist than you are, sport. He just works for different masters than you do. He’s also a liar. So you have that in common. Which is nice.
Without FDR? We’d be a fascist dictatorship already instead of just well on our way. We would have been one before WWII. In fact, had the Prescott Bush’s of the world gotten their way, the U.S. would have joined the war on the Nazi side. And as to the causation of WWII? Got bad news for ya, sport! Your Hillsfail history instructors have done you wrong yet again. We didn’t start that. Germany did that all on their own. It had absolutely nothing to do with our Great Depression being a catalyst. That was caused by . . . wait for it . . . unregulated banks, bankers and businessmen too greedy to know when to stop. WWII was caused by the draconian sanctions against Germany after WWI and their own bad domestic economy coupled with a psychopath seizing power. Another fine example of cum hoc ergo propter hoc from your mal-educated and irrationally self-rationalizing brain.
Speaking of sociopaths and psychopaths, as to Bush? He started a war for personal profit against a country that didn’t even attack us. All the while protecting his business partners the Saudis. Who, by the way, did attack us on 9/11. Screw justice! There was money to be made! Sounds just like your “greed is good” mantra, doesn’t it?
Corporatism is an anti-Constitutional, anti-American, amoral, childish, and selfish political stance of the greedy, corrupt and sociopathic – like your boys Ron and Rand Paul. You know. The guys who want to privatize everything.
Call me a neo-con all you like, Koch-sucker. It makes it no more the truth than you making up all the other poli-sci terms you misuse on a regular basis. Hillsdale Clown College has done a right-wing good job on scrubbing your brain to be devoid of any cogent thought. The neo-cons are for privatization of everything which squarely puts them in your court, greed boy, not the realm of democratic socialism which is – by definition – for government provided services that enhance and insure the stability of all of society, not just line the pockets of greed merchants like yourself.
You’re an ignorant, ill-informed, malodorous child with the ethical sense of a rabid dog and anyone in league with your political likes is simply a selfish egoist who can’t see any societal interest past their own pocketbook and their need to use money to compensate for having a small . . . soul.
The real world is going to eat you alive, boy.
Was that clear enough for you?
Chan L.,
Question: You go to a christian school, yes? Do they teach a moral compass? I presume not….
Answer this for me: If someone brings you a piece of jewelry and says give me what you think it is worth…What would you do?
More facts for you….you only have 100 dollars in your pocket…you think….my mom has a piece of jewelry like this…..so you think….I’ll buy this for my mom….she’d like it….You proudly get home and you see your mom there….your parents are divorced….you tell her how good of a deal you got on the ring….she says….Chan….I want to let you know that we were broken into and all of my jewelry was stolen and she is waiting for the police to come…
The police arrive….they find out you have the ring…they put you down as a possible suspect…you have no clue who you bought the jewelry from…it was a cash transaction…You are arrested and prosecuted for theft….you can’t be charged for Burglary as you have had a right to be there…
You are a poor college student….you can’t afford an attorney…the ring is worth about 15K….so an attorney is appointed for you…per Giddeon….the right to counsel…your Court Appointed attorney believes you are guilty and try’s and gets you to plead to a lesser included offense…of the theft…you are offered a great deal….which will be expunged after you complete probation….
What would you do…..Start out by your moral compass and see where it takes you…
Buddha:
you STFU you little socialist nit wit.
If it hadn’t been for all you dialectical materialism boys, the people in New Orleans would have been helped more quickly.
You and your kind have screwed this country up so bad we cant see daylight. You socialist nit wits were doing the same thing during the Great Depression, all those Ivy League educated dumb asses inflicting socialist drivel on the rest of us. Prolonging the depression and causing WWII. Doing the same thing again now. I wonder what WWIII is going to look like with your little socialist flunkie Obama. Seems you dip shits never learn and the rest of us pay the price.
And Bush is definitely closer to your way of thinking than mine. So I would say you and the neo-cons have a good deal more in common than I do.
The Federal government under Bush I might add. FEMA failed because Reagan and the Bush clan neutered it and then George put an idiot in charge of the operations, Michael Brown, who later resigned but not before he was sent back to Washington by Cherthoff for being incompetent. Don’t get me wrong, though. Mayor Nagin (an outright racist jackass unfit to be dog catcher) and Governor Blaco (an incompetent DINO in the mold of Charlie Melançon) didn’t do a bang up job either and there is blame to go around. Just not equally. FEMA was designed to mobilize in such a way that malfunctions at state level – possibly caused by disaster proper – could and would be circumvented. However, the failures of FEMA and the State of Louisiana are exacerbated by what every Republican to touch the program since Carter started it did to weaken their independence to act in an emergency. The only people who did do their job timely and properly? The United States Coast Guard. They said screw your approvals and snaking about looking to take political credit, we’re going in to save lives. As to “your way” working? If you consider wide spread contractor fraud and corruption “working”, then yeah, your way worked for New Orleans. And the lawsuits are still pending.
As a personal aside and as someone who lived though Katrina in New Orleans, Chan?
That’s one topic I invite you to STFU about, you witless little neo-con troll.
Until you’ve lived through such a thing?
You’re simply talking out of your butt, greed boy. It was people like you who fucked up the disaster response. People looking to profit off of disaster. Plain and simple.
Compassionate?
You wouldn’t know compassion if it bit you on your greedy ass, sport.
Maybe she noticed someone took a c*** in it?
Stamford takes his pail and shovel and stomps out of the sandbox.
LOL!
Chan, How about oil companies? Oil companies that are making record profits accepting government subsidies and HQ’d offshore so they don’t pay any corporate tax like Exxon) to the US, is that honest?
How about the leaders of the energy industry, wealthy beyond even Croesus’ dreams claiming that “prosperity is under attack by the current administration and many of our elected officials.”** to rally opposition to even the slim possibility that their business might lose subsidies or be affected by a government policy? Is that honest?
How about putting profit above safety, cutting corners and killing 11 people? Leaving an entire regions environment poisoned and hundreds, perhaps thousands of people ill with diseases? Is that honest? And before you say the BP disaster was a fluke, read up on the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez spill and the lessons that should have been learned or read up on the state of the Niger Delta for a look at the default level of business practiced without regulation. The BP disaster was a part of a pattern of the way the oil/energy business conducts itself. Is that honest?
How about using methods of gas and coal extraction (fracking and mountain top removal) that leave water resources poisoned and residents ill. Is that honest?
**
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/protesters-decry-koch-brothers-desert-retreat-25-arrested/
“In a letter calling on participants to join the meeting in Rancho Mirage, Charles Koch argued that “prosperity is under attack by the current administration and many of our elected officials.”
The brothers own Koch Industries, an energy conglomerate ranked by Forbes magazine as the second-largest privately held company in the United States, and are known to underwrite the Cato Institute and other libertarian and conservative causes.”
Mespo727272:
now that is just funny, tell me again how long it took the Federal Government to send help? And how long it took the Governor of LA to aks for it?
And as far as getting goods and services to a disaster area? Yes my way does work and prices arent very high for long due to the amount of products that are diverted to the area and more people are helped by higher prices.
here is an article that speaks to those issues:
http://www.ftc.gov/be/meyergouging.pdf
may way helps the most people, sorry Mespo727272 I am more compassionate than you are.
Please join Hillsdale College at our next First Principles on First Fridays lecture:
“James Madison: Father of American Politics”
Richard Brookhiser
Author, Founding Father”
********************
The mind can imagine no better way of getting unbiased historical information from one so committed to history that he climbed to the lofty heights of a bachelor’s degree. He then went to work for the National Review and never left. Somewhere along the way Brookhiser became an historian. To quote comedian Yakov Smirnoff: “America, What a Country.” Hell, Brookhiser even wrote some books and did a special for PBS, too. Lest anyone think me an academic snob, I’ll concede Brookhiser did “achieve” one doctorate — an honorary one from tiny Washington College. Are all conservatives so gullible?
Personally, I decline the invite and I’ll get comparable information from reading Madison rather than letting someone with B.A. tell me what they derive from reading Madison.
Chen,
I’m not shy, or particularly subtle. If I wanted to know what you think a moral job is I would have asked.
I wanted to know when you felt greed was justified, and then asked for clarification. You (eventually) gave it.
Thank you.
Chan L:
“For example during a disaster should people be allowed to sell a bottle of water for 10 bucks? I say yes because you will cause many people to bring water into the area and the price will go down. So I would say it moral to charge $10 for a bottle of water. Because goods and services will flow quickly to where they are needed.”
***************
Yours is the classic “morality of the marketplace” used to justify all manner of economic oppression with some mantra of greater good in the future and which defines that “good” as reductions in price caused by increased supply wrought by gouging those most in need. History shows that this economic projection of history rarely occurs. How much are you paying for gas now that BP has cleaned up the mess and the crisis has been “resolved”?
Your example is not “good” or moral to the man dying of thirst who has only $9.00. In fact it is evil, and devoid of compassion to him. I would also question any morality that makes one unduly wealthy at the expense of another. There is no unalienable right to take advantage of your fellow man for your own sake. Wrapped in morality are notions of fairness and regard for your fellow human being. Not perfect utiliatarism but rather a humanistic regard for the plight of others. “Do unto others …,” while not unique is still a fine distillation of morality.