Destor on Ordering a Pizza Conservatively in Texas
Ramona: Hatred in a Lovely Church
Gallup: Obama 46, Romney 46
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Destor on Ordering a Pizza Conservatively in Texas Ramona: Hatred in a Lovely Church Gallup: Obama 46, Romney 46 |
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Yes, the mid-term elections are over and the crying jags have pretty much stopped, so, while I'm shocked at the damage comfort chocolate has done to some people's butts. . .
. . . I have just one thing to say about the overall impact of the glorious orgy of wastage known as the 21st Century American Campaign for Public Office So's I can Live off the Public Dole Whilst Killing it for Everyone Else: Humph!!! (and also "We'll just see about that, lads and lassies!")
In a country where the U.S. total debt is nearing 55 gazillion dollars, where the interest alone is over 3 bajillion, where the official number of unemployed citizens is almost 15 million but the actual number is 26 million, where we owe so much money to China they could conquer us simply by calling in their debt. . .in that country, our country ('tis of thee), the politicians--those bloody buggering bastards--spent 4.2 billion dollars on campaign advertising in order to secure for themselves not just any jobs but--get this--government jobs.
So when we kept calling for jobs, jobs, jobs we apparently didn't make it clear that we were talking about ours, not theirs. For months now, we've been concentrating on getting the votes out for people who needed a job so badly they spent more than most of us will earn in five lifetimes in order to get it.
Is it asking too much, then, to expect that they'll come up with some meaningful ways of building a job market in the Greatest Country in the World so that the people who voted for them can get in on the American Dream?
Money doesn't buy votes, it provides a glittery gift box for perceptions. Real people still have to get out there and cast their ballots and it's those same real people who suffer and bleed when their own government turns against them at a time when they need them most. What those 30 megakillion pieces of silver bought this time is the perception that real people aren't suffering and bleeding. Not worthy people, anyway.
This election was baffling in that one faction, the anti-government Republican Tea Party, ran on a platform of aggressively disinterested blind-eye and won. They convinced millions of the most vulnerable among us that even though they'll be taking paychecks from the government and accepting all the perks that government will allow, and sitting in the halls of government deciding and voting on how best to stop the government from doing anything--it's what the American people want, by God, because they said so. (And how did they say so? By voting the anti-governments in, of course.)
So it's all about the job but not all about the jobs and once again we're on our own, getting ready to shout from a mountaintop into the wind, hoping a few tiny word-wisps will escape the updrafts and waft down to earth, finding purchase on a mighty magic rock capable of transforming those syllables into actions that might actually mean something.
But in case that doesn't happen, there's always this:
(I was hoping you weren't going to read this far. I got nothing.)
Cross-posted at Ramona's Voices here. (Nothing there, either)
By Ismail Kahn, New York Times, May 23/24, 2012
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A Pakistani doctor who helped the Central Intelligence Agency pin down Osama bin Laden's location under cover of a vaccination drive was convicted on Wednesday of treason and sentenced to 33 years in prison, a senior official in Pakistan said.
A tribal court here in northwestern Pakistan found the doctor, Shakil Afridi, guilty of acting against the state, said Mutahir Zeb Khan, the administrator for the Khyber tribal region [....]
By Sergei L. Loiko, Los Angeles Times, May 23, 2012
MOSCOW — Stiff new penalties aimed at opposition protesters were given preliminary approval Tuesday by Russian lawmakers loyal to President Vladimir Putin, the target of mass rallies and demonstrations before his March election victory.
The bill, which opposition parliament members termed draconian and protested by threatening to file out of a legislative session, calls for fines of up to $50,000 and up to 200 hours of community service for organizers of rallies and demonstrations that grow violent or exceed the approved number of participants.
The sanctions were approved on first reading by parliament's lower house, which is controlled by Putin's United Russia party. They mark a return by the Kremlin to a tough stance against critics after concessions during the recent election campaign [...]
Also see:
Russians back Putin, strong leadership
Washington Post, May 22, 2012
A Pew survey of 1,000 Russians found that President Vladimir Putin is well-liked by more than 70 percent of citizens, especially older adults.
Associated Press, May 21, 2012
HAVANA — It was all sunshine, smiles and celebratory speeches as officials marked the arrival of an undersea fiber-optic cable they promised would end Cuba's Internet isolation and boost web capacity 3,000-fold. Even a retired Fidel Castro had hailed the dawn of a new cyber-age on the island.
More than a year after the February 2011 ceremony on Siboney Beach in eastern Cuba, and 10 months after the system was supposed to have gone online, the government never mentions the cable anymore, and Internet here remains the slowest in the hemisphere. People talk quietly about embezzlement torpedoing the project and the arrest of more than a half-dozen senior telecom officials.
Perhaps most maddening, nobody has explained what happened to the much-ballyhooed $70 million project....
By Tamasin Ford in Monrovia, Guardian.co.uk, May 22, 2012
Husbands, not strangers or men with guns, are now the biggest threat to women in post-conflict west Africa, according to a report by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) released on Tuesday.
The IRC report, Let Me Not Die Before My Time: Domestic Violence in West Africa, based on data collected over 10 years by the IRC in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ivory Coast, said domestic violence is the "most urgent, pervasive and significant protection issue for women in west Africa" [.....]
By Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press, May 22, 2012
WASHINGTON -- Uncle Sam may not want you after all.
In sharp contrast to the peak years of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the Army last year took in no recruits with misconduct convictions or drug or alcohol issues, according to internal documents obtained by The Associated Press. And soldiers already serving on active duty now must meet tougher standards to stay on for further tours in uniform.
The Army is also spending hundreds of thousands of dollars less in bonuses to attract recruits or entice soldiers to remain.
It's all part of an effort to slash the size of the active duty Army from about 570,000 at the height of the Iraq war to 490,000 by 2017. The cutbacks began last year, and as of the end of March, the Army was down to less than 558,000 troops.
For a time during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army lowered its recruiting standards [....]
Oh ya...I remember seeing an infomercial about that on a local FOX affiliate. You send them some money and then attend a seminar and they give all the information you need to secure a government job. Sweat.
Jobs, jobs, jobs....at least I don't have to hear Rick Michigan's whiney voice say that anymore because he done bought his for $6 million according to this.
Spending personal fortunes on buying a government job has truly gotten out of hand.
It's just crazy. Sure, some won and some lost, no matter what they spent, but in Bernero's case he didn't stand a chance. That article says Snyder spent 6 million dollars in the primary. What did he spend overall?
Something has to be done about campaign finance reform. There will never be such a thing as a level playing field if money is the answer to everything. Not fair.
I thought the $6 mill was a little light myself, but didn't bother to reread the article before posting. I'd read the figure was around $14 mill for Snyder while Bernero was under the $2 mill mark. It was lopsided at whatever the final tally was. Still, it was no where near DeVos's self-funded war chest. Over $40 mill for the governorship which he lost to Granholm. Ha.
Ran across this the other day.
Published Oct. 11, 2007 (that is, before "the crash."):
Wow, that's a bombshell. Not the news--it doesn't come as a shock to most of us--but the fact that Gallup was so emphatic about their findings, even to the point of offering solutions.
Who was listening? Was it used during the campaigns? If it wasn't, it should have been. It should have changed everything.
Just a mailing of the following would have done it (This came right after your quotes above. Notice the emphasis on "good" jobs):
A distinction worth making: the $3-4.3 billion was the amount spent for political advertising NOT the amount spent BY the political candidates.
http://adage.com/article?article_id=146818
If a candidate spends $14 million, but outside groups spend $57 million because they wish to further their own interests, then don't blame the candidate for the combined total!
Only the ads from the candidate's campaign have to have an "I approve this message". Outside groups are legally prohibited from coordinating with the campaign, so that while they do support a candidate, the candidate doesn't 'own' it. (This doesn't count ads sponsored by the candidate's party.) Outside ads usually end with someone talking really fast saying, "This ad was paid for by Citizens for a Prosperous America"- or something similarly anodyne.
You got me, Dave. Still having a hard time with billions of dollars being spent on election campaigning (the point, actually), but you got me.
If you listen to the 'Political Gabfest' (a podcast from Slate), David Plotz has been arguing that what this shows is that the U.S. elections have previously been "under capitalized". It's a somewhat distasteful notion that there could be a dollar value assigned to elections, but distasteful or not I think he's right.
"Somewhat distasteful" is more than a bit of an understatement. "Outrageously obscene" is my take on it. We're in an economic crisis the likes of which most of us haven't seen in our lifetimes, and we're talking about billions with a B going toward political campaigns.
We love to be stingy when it comes to actual needs, pretending that real people aren't being hurt, but this seems to be outside of any kind of moral distinction. I'm sickened by it, and intellectual analyzing is not the antidote. I still feel like vomiting.