kateoplis: US soldiers killed: 4,481 Seriously wounded: 32,195 Psychological damage: 30% of US troops develop serious mental health problems within 3-4 months of returning home. Journalists killed: 229 Iraqi Police & soldiers killed: 10,125 Estimated Iraqi civilian deaths: Between 108,000 and 150,000 although there’s criticism that that only includes deaths reported by media agencies. Coalition deaths: 318 Private contractor […]
Read moreYou got kids? Kids always act up the most before they go to sleep. And when I see the Tea Party and all this stuff, it actually feels like racism’s almost over. Because this is the last — this is the act up before the sleep. They’re going crazy. They’re insane. You want to get rid of them — and the next thing you know, they’re fucking knocked out. And that’s what’s going on in the country right now.
Chris Rock on racism, in Esquire (via katykelley)
Anonymous Strikes Again: This time taking down the site of the Koch Brothers-funded activist group, Americans for Prosperity and posting the letter above.
Read moreIf you want to know what the federal government is really doing, just look where it’s spending our money. Two of every five dollars goes to Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid, all of which provide some form of insurance. A bit more than a buck goes to the military. Then there’s a $1.50 or so for assorted other spending – education, infrastructure, environmental protection, farm subsidies, etc. Some of that, like unemployment checks and food stamps, is also best understood as forms of insurance. And then there’s another 40 cents of debt repayment. Calvin Coolidge once said that the business of America is business. Well, the business of the American government is insurance. Literally. If you look at how the federal government spends our money, it’s an insurance conglomerate protected by a large standing army.
Ezra Klein, The Washington Post, February 14, 2011. With thanks to npr. (via politicalprof)
That’s My Governor!
From Politco:
“How many more American citizens are going to have to die?” Perry asked.
The border state governor then turned to the chaos created by Mexico’s drug wars.
“There have been 34,000 Mexicans killed directly attributable to the drug wars. It is a very dangerous place,” he said.
Perry then pointed out that “Juarez is reported to be the most dangerous city in America.”
After an aide informed the governor of his mistake, Perry clarified that Juarez indeed belongs to Mexico, not Texas.
If New York is Superman; and Chicago is Batman; and Los Angeles is the Flash; then Austin is the Green Lantern.
We are a city without fear. We are a city that can create anything we can visualize, through sheer force of will. We are a city with a special charge to shine a light into the darkness and lead the way to a new and better day.
Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell, in his 2011 State of the City address
Clearly, This Is Progress
From the Texas Tribune’s coverage of Tyler, Texas’s birther representative, Leo Berman:
Though the Obama campaign produced a certificate of live birth from Hawaii, Mr. Berman was not swayed. “The latest rumor I hear, and I don’t know if this is true or not,” he said, “is that he’s used about 25 different Social Security numbers.”
Mr. Berman said he got his information from e-mail and online video clips. “YouTubes are infallible,” he said.
I remember watching people get worked up about the fact the first lady (Nancy Reagan) was so into astrology.
Today, we’ve got elected politicians with salaries paid by taxpayers who are treating an information source that contains 160,000 UFO sightings, almost 2,000 Jesus sightings and 291,000 9/11 conspiracy theory videos as “infallible”.
Hooray America!
Finally someone steps up with an accurate assessment of what people really mean when they say “less government”. (Source: https://www.youtube.com/)
Read moreThese gangs are cockroaches. They’re nothing. They’re not one percent of the Libyan people.
Libyan tyrant Moammar Kadafi on the Libyan citizen protesters that he has attacked with warplanes, helicopter gunships, and foreign mercenaries in the past week
The 45 Best Protest Signs At The Wisconsin Capitol
The 45 Best Protest Signs At The Wisconsin Capitol
Newly-elected Governor Scott Walker is clearly not having any trouble making a name for himself.
You put Lloyd Blankfein in pound-me-in-the-ass prison for one six-month term, and all this bullshit would stop, all over Wall Street. That’s all it would take. Just once.
A former congressional aide, answering Matt Taibbi’s question, “Why isn’t Wall Street in Jail?”
TrojanWire 