September 18, 2013

Congressional Spending is why the Debt Ceiling has to be raised. No other reason.

I know most of us here know this: but I thought I'd post just to help us ignore all of the distractions and red herrings that the Wingnut-contolled media throws out there:

http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2013/09/18/congressional-spending-is-why-the-debt-ceiling-has-to-be-raised-no-other-reason/

Full Post (I'm the author, so it's legal):

The “Republicans” who control the House of “Representatives” are once again threatening to refuse to raise the debt ceiling unless their whiny, silly, pouting, and just generally idiotic demands du jour are met. In this case, it’s a demand that ObamaCare be destroyed. A ridiculous demand, of course, but that’s not how deep the rabbit hole of stupid goes.

Here’s the deal: Congress spends money. They are responsible for the amount of taxing and spending. That means they are responsible for the amount of the national debt. That means they are responsible for the need to raise the debt ceiling.

“But ObamaCare”, the Wingnuts cry. News flash: Congress voted for it. That means they’re responsible for the funding that they voted for. Not the Prexy, not the courts: that’s what’s called the Separation of Powers. Congress holds the power of the purse, and for years they have been using that power in a most irresponsible manner.

Yes, the debt is too high. But that is no reason for Congress to try to weasel out of paying the bills they have run up over the decades. No, that is a reason to adjust tax and spending policy to bring the national debt down in the future,

The law of the land says the U.S. Government has to pay its bills. If Congress refuses to do so, they will be in violation of the law. And only Congress will be responsible. No one else. It’s their fault for spending more than they take in.

Nothing else at the link.

September 17, 2013

Reince Priebus just might be the dumbest person on the planet.

http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2013/09/17/reince-priebus-just-might-be-the-dumbest-person-on-the-planet/

The RNC chair actually said that a Big Government Democrat (Obama) wants to shut down Big Government. As he said, in his own dumb words, “”I think he wants this thing to happen, a shutdown of the government,”

Uhhhmmm, Reince ol’ buddy ol’ pal, that ain’t how the Big Government types roll. They want to keep that thar Big Gummint up and runnin’, yup they do.

It’s actually the SMALL Government types (like Rinsing RNC Reince) that benefit from a government shutdown, because a shutdown makes the government, well, smaller. For a while.

What a truly stupid person. Why, the only way someone could be dumber would be to believe what Mr. Priebus said. Let’s hope nobody’s THAT dumb.

More info at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/17/reince-priebus-obama_n_3940647.html?icid=hp_politics_top_art

September 16, 2013

America, the Stupid. And Racist.

http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2013/09/16/america-the-stupid-and-racist/

Snip:

The Twitterverse exploded with the slime and garbage from stupid, ignorant, bigoted American f*** wits this past weekend, as an Indian-American woman won the Miss American pageant. Nina Davuluri, born in Syracuse NY, is according to the meth-mouthed, inbred, and generally useless subhumans who tweeted their racist s*** after she won, a terrorist convenient store clerk whose coronation is a slap in the faces of all Americans. Here is what she actually looks like:


As to what the Twittering Twits said, well, it comes down to her being “Arab”, or “Al-Quaida”, or “7/11″ or some such crap. Christ on a pogo stick, these alleged “Americans” make you want to puke. They:
Number A, can’t tell one non-lily-white person from another;
Letter 2, think all non-lily-white people are terrorists, and;
Thirdly, think that only white women, (preferably rednecks) should be crowned as Miss America."

More at the link.

Also see: http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/a-lot-of-people-are-very-upset-that-an-indian-american-woman

September 14, 2013

Lying Sack of S*** of The Week: Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad

http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2013/09/14/lying-sack-of-s-of-the-week-syrian-president-bashar-al-assad/

Was there any doubt? No, there wasn’t. Mr. Al-Assad won the LSoSOTW competition going away: he started the week by claiming to have no chemical weapons, then claimed he’d be happy to give them up, then saying he maybeprobablywouldn’tunlessthisandthathappened.

And of course, you can’t give up something that doesn’t exist. So unless he developed the technology to create and deliver chemical weapons (and then made the chemicals and missiles, too) in a day or less, he’s lying.

A Sarin-encrusted Crown O’ Polished Turds, then, for the Syrian Prexy. A most exemplary Lying Sack of S*** of The Week.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

(Honorable mentions to Putin, Lavrov, Obama, and Kerry for the pretense of an “accidental slip of the tongue” that “started” this week’s diplomatic effort. Dudes, it was kinda lame. Everybody knew you made that s*** up – you have been talking about this idea for a year. But it was a pretty big lie – not as big as ol’ Bashie’s was, though.)

Nothing else at the link.

September 13, 2013

India sentences four rapists to death. We should do the same.

http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2013/09/13/india-sentences-four-rapists-to-death-we-should-do-the-same/

Snips:

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I hear you saying “how barbaric” or something of such. But to Hell with it. Rape is endemic across the globe, and even when the victim dies or has their life ruined, most of the vile scumbag perverts get off with a slap on the wrist, or are not punished at all.

And because our “justice” system constantly sends the message that rape is no big deal by handing out little or no punishment for crimes of sexual violence, men think it’s OK to rape. Our smirking, winking, jocular, nudge-nudge cultural attitude towards rape is also a part of the problem. India provides a sharp departure from this sickening norm.

The four men who raped and murdered that poor woman in New Delhi will die by hanging. Yes. Rope around the neck, open the trapdoor, and the guilty party dangles and struggles until he dies. A horrible and painful death."

More at the link, including links to stories of rape and injustice from India, Ohio, Montana and Connecticut. I am fully aware that many people oppose the death penalty in all cases, and I respect their opinion. I just differ in the case of crimes of sexual violence.

September 12, 2013

Five Years after the Bush Economic Meltdown

http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2013/09/12/five-years-after-the-bush-economic-meltdown/

And guess how many Wall Street Crooks have gone to jail? Answer- none. That’s right, the people who crashed the world economy and caused the Great Recession have never been called to account. In fact, most of them are still where they were, getting richer than Croesus.

And one of them became Ohio’s Governor.

Think about it.

September 11, 2013

What a difference 12 years can make.

http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2013/09/11/what-a-difference-12-years-can-make/

In 2001, we had an incompetent and illegitimate “President”, whose arrogance and sense of entitlement was a big reason for the fact that he stupidly ignored the advice of every single expert and allowed 9/11/ to happen. He then lied us into a stupid war with Iraq, crapped all over the Constitution, and bankrupted the nation. Oh, and Bush the Dumber ignored the will of the people.

Today we have a President, twice elected by a clear majority of voters, who has made a good start at cleaning up the messes left behind by the Bushistas. He is moving us back towards Constitutional law, has started to reduce the deficit, brought tens of thousands of American soldiers home, killed the man responsible for 9/11, and generally acted like a, well, legitimate President. All the while receiving little or no appreciation from much of anybody on the Left, Right, or in the Center.

And last night he proved that he DOES listen to vox populi, when he asked Congress to wait to vote on authorization to bomb Syria. The people are against it. He listened. Now he is looking for new options instead of flipping 300 million of us the bird and merrily marching off to war (as the Shrub did).

The best way to honor those who died on this day in 2001 is to show that we have learned the lessons from that horrible day. Obama, like him or not, (and this writer doesn’t much like the man) is doing just that. Credit where it’s due; so thanks, Mister President. It’s nice to have a grownup at 1600 again.

Nothing else at the link.

September 10, 2013

On Syria:Doing Nothing CAN be worse than Doing Something (NOTE:this post will probably p*** you off)

http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2013/09/10/on-syria-doing-nothing-can-be-worse-than-doing-something-warning-this-post-will-probably-p-you-off/
Two things first: First, this is NOT specifically directed at DU or DUers, but at people across the country, of many political persuasions. Second, I'm the author, so the three-paragraph rule doesn't apply.

Normally, I do not take up space with an entire post - but this time, I wanted to get the whole thing out there so as not to be misunderstood. Argued with is fine, of course. Nothing else at the link.

When this writer was but a wee cranky lad, he was sometimes bullied. Fortunately, he was blessed with the ability to fight back. So after a while, the bullies went and found other, easier targets for their bullying. Does that mean that fighting back did no good? After all, the bullying didn’t stop, it just happened somewhere else.

Most of us have seen a domestic incident happen in public. Usually, some good citizen will call the cops or otherwise intervene. Odds are, the domestic abuse continues in private after the intervention. Does that mean that the intervention did no good? After all, the abuse didn’t stop, it just happened somewhere else.

In both of these cases, it’s a fair guess that you’d say “standing up for the victim of abuse is the right thing to do, even if it doesn’t completely fix everything”. This writer agrees. There are issues of morality in play here, not just inhuman calculations of efficacy. So why do so many of us appear willing to throw the Syrian people under the bus by ignoring the abuse that is being heaped upon them?

Yes, Iraq was a cluster-f***. Got it. That was (as your humble correspondent said and has been saying since before the Bushistas lied us into that quagmire) a stupid conflict that we never should have gotten into. But Syria is not Iraq. Nor is the fact that an intervention went South in the past a good reason to never intervene again everevereverevernomatterwhat.

On a short-term, purely practical level, there may be no clearly foreseeable benefit to intervention in Syria, and there certainly are manifold risks to consider. That doesn’t mean we should sit back and do nothing. Just as with a wife being beaten or a child being abused, we intervene even though we do not know the outcome, because we know that right now, a basic human right is being violated. And we owe it to our fellow human beings to stand up for them when their rights are denied.

The fact that they are on the other side of the world instead of the other side of the street does not take away our obligation to care for those who are being oppressed. You know what oppressors love? The same thing that bullies, wife-beaters and child molesters love: they love people who do nothing to stop them from committing crimes against humanity, because it enables them to continue committing those crimes.

Sometimes the media and politicos (and our fellow Americans) can get so wrapped up in realpolitik that we forget about basic human rights and decency. And make no mistake, there are lots of Americans saying “what is happening in Syria is none of our business”, or something of such. So take a moment and think: if you were being beaten, bullied, sexually abused, or gassed, what would you say? Answer: you’d say “HELP ME!” or words to that effect. As you should.

And what would you say to those who could have helped you but chose to turn away, leaving you to the tender mercies of your abuser? Answer: you’d say “F*** YOU, MOTHERF***ER”, or words to that effect. And those whose cowardice or indifference had sealed your fate would deserve those words, that shame, that stinging indictment of their manifest inhumanity.

This does not mean that military intervention is safe, or simple, or even desirable. Nor is military intervention the only route to take – there are some rumblings about a new diplomatic solution, thanks to John Kerry’s flapping yap. But no intervention, doing nothing at all, just because we are understandably weary of war and justly suspicious of our government? That is morally indefensible. (To be clear: thus far, we have done nothing. Nothing at the UN, nothing on the ground.)

People are being abused in Syria: 2 million Syrians are refugees, many living under tarps in the desert, as this post is being written. Hundreds have been gassed to death, and thousands more have been tortured and killed by the abusive Assad regime. If we vote to do nothing to help them, it is no different than turning away from the bullied person or abused child who needs our help right here at home.

September 9, 2013

Gun Nuts have jumped the shark: Iowa is granting carry permits to the legally blind

http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2013/09/09/gun-nuts-have-jumped-the-shark-iowa-is-granting-carry-permits-to-the-legally-blind/

From the article referenced in the blog post: "Private gun ownership — even hunting — by visually impaired Iowans is nothing new. But the practice of visually impaired residents legally carrying firearms in public became widely possible thanks to gun permit changes that took effect in Iowa in 2011.

“It seems a little strange, but the way the law reads, we can’t deny them (a permit) just based on that one thing,” said Sgt. Jana Abens, a spokeswoman for the Polk County sheriff’s office, referring to a visual disability.

Polk County officials say they’ve issued weapons permits to at least three people who can’t legally drive and were unable to read the application forms or had difficulty doing so because of visual impairments."

More at the link, including the usual cranky ranting.

September 6, 2013

Ohio’s 100% “Republican” government gets a “D+” for Spending Transparency (X-Post from GD)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023610175

http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2013/09/06/ohios-100-republican-government-gets-a-d-for-spending-transparency/

Snips:

"But you needn’t take the Cranky word for it: as seen in the Dayton Business Journal, “The Buckeye State received a grade of D-plus from the Georgia PIRG Education Fund, which handed out grades in its “Following the Money 2013: How the States Rank on Providing Online Access to Government Spending Data” report.”

This news, on top of the new law banning the state Auditor from, well, auditing JobsOhio and its use of taxpayer funds (making it impossible to tell who is ripping us off) and a BGA survey ranking Ohio as the tenth most secretive state in the nation, you have to wonder why ANY Buckeye would trust these zeebs."



More at the link, including source material.