DOH!! Speaking Out of Turn -- Ron Paul Style . . .

Sometimes The Gadfly simply has to let loose with a hearty guffaw at the asininity and nearly comical lack of self (not to mention wider societal) awareness that the right wing conservatives frequently display.

Case in point - "Libertardian" hero Ron Paul had this to say re: the Boston Marathon bombing:

“The Boston bombing provided the opportunity for the government to turn what should have been a police investigation into a military-style occupation of an American city,” Paul, a Texas Republican, wrote today on the website of the libertarian writer Lew Rockwell. “This unprecedented move should frighten us as much or more than the attack itself.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/ron-paul-boston-comments-90737.html#ixzz2RsdzewRw


Read it through slowly two or three times and then tell The Gadfly if you suddenly had a "what's wrong with this picture" feeling rumble through your brain.

If you are still pondering it - here - let The Gadfly give you a hand.

Mr. Paul, quite frankly, simply does not know what the fuck he is talking about - and here's why.

"The Boston Bombing provided the opportunity for the government to turn what should have been a police investigation . . ."  Stop right there.  It was a police investigation - period.  From the moment of the explosion through the moment the Boston PD had a shootout with the suspects killing one of them, through the moment the Boston PD conducted house to house searches in the neighborhoods around the area of that shooting (not the entire city), and up to the final moment when the Boston PD captured the second suspect Dzokhar Tsarnaev hiding out in a boat in that same residential area they were searching.

The Federal government's involvement came in to play the moment that everyone agreed that it was a terrorist attack and the Boston Mayor and the Massachusetts Governor performed their due diligence and enlisted their aid.  And lest the right wingers forget - let us all recall exactly how it came to be that the response to terror attacks on U.S. soil came to be under the jurisdiction of the Federal Government and the Department of Homeland Security:

In response to the September 11 attacks, President George W. Bush announced the establishment of the Office of Homeland Security (OHS) to coordinate "homeland security" efforts. The office was headed by former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, who assumed the title of Assistant to the President for Homeland Security. The official announcement stated:

“

The mission of the Office will be to develop and coordinate the implementation of a comprehensive national strategy to secure the United States from terrorist threats or attacks. The Office will coordinate the executive branch's efforts to detect, prepare for, prevent, protect against, respond to, and recover from terrorist attacks within the United States.[12]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Homeland_Security


So - there you have one Ron Paul misinformed piece of dreck cleanly dispensed with.  Let us continue.

Mr. Paul goes on mumble:

"This unprecedented move should frighten us as much or more than the attack itself."

First off - The Gadfly believes Ron Paul and his goggle-eyed groupie fans ought to learn the definition of the word "unprecedented."  The Bush Administration's response to their failure to protect America from the 9/11 attacks were unprecedented (you can your start reading here should you care to learn why --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._government_response_to_the_September_11_attacks).

Alternately - the Obama Administration, in the case of the Boston attack, simply followed Bush's Homeland Security edict to assert jurisdiction over terror attacks on U.S. soil - which is exactly what they did on the heels of the Boston Police Department's investigation and efforts to identify and capture the suspects.  That is not really unprecedented at all.

The Gadfly, however, would like to take this silly, no nothing quote a step further though.  For the sake of argument, let us agree that the Obama Administration's role was indeed "unprecedented."  If Mr. Paul, whose acolytes view him as some kind of political and constitutional genius, had the ability to reflect and analyze the larger picture of what is going on in American society today that might cause local, state and Federal law enforcement agencies to react with investigative actions of the kind that "frighten" Mr. Paul, perhaps The Gadfly would not feel compelled to write a post like this one which calls Mr. Paul's comprehension of the subject matter at hand in to belligerent question.

The Gadfly is referring to the reality that America, thanks solely to the boneheaded Ron Pauls and the NRA and the right wing gun goons and the idiot Teabaggers and an amalgamation of other wrongheaded conservative clowns, is directly responsible for law enforcement authorities having to deal with a country that is fucking insanely awash in military combat weapons in the hands of god knows what kind of lunatics at disparate ends of the political and religious spectrum.  These same unthinking dip-shits are also responsible for consistently working to defeat sensible congressional legislation that makes the job of securing the U.S. homeland from terror attacks and mass shootings an easier task for the dedicated and brave professionals whom we have put our collective faith in when it comes to protecting us from evil.

So to sum up - Ron Paul is an idiot.  He always has been and the few policy views that he does have which The Gadfly agrees with, do not make up for the empirically arrived at conclusion that the man and his myriad conspiracy theories, and his ingrained inability to see the larger picture of what reality-based life in America truly is like in the year 2013 -- much less what it will be like years beyond.


----TFG

Glad You Asked . . .

Bill Maher asks the question as to why it is that Republicans are much more inclined to pardon and renew their faith in their moral misfits than Democrats are:





The Gadfly can answer that question Mr. Maher.

It is because Republicans are infinitely bigger hypocrites whose values aren't at all based on concepts such as honor, fairness and truthfulness, but instead are borne entirely out of their interminable thirst for ever more political power and authoritarian supremacy.

The Gadfly thanks you for tuning in to another fine edition of Simple Answers To Simple Questions.


----TFG

It's Only Tyranny When A-rabs Do It . . .

Religious extremism - wrapped in the American flag style:

A high school in central Mississippi allegedly forced students to watch a Christian video and listen to church officials preach about Jesus Christ.

The American Humanist Association’s legal center filed a lawsuit against Northwest Rankin High School in Flowood on Wednesday, accusing the school of violating the student’s First Amendment rights.

The school has held at least three mandatory assemblies about finding hope in Jesus Christ this month, according to the lawsuit. The assemblies showed a video laced with Christian messages about overcoming personal hardships through Jesus Christ and were allegedly led by local church officials.

“See, before Jesus came, innocent blood had to be shed for our sins,” one of the church officials allegedly told the students. “There had to be an animal that was sacrificed to atone for our sin. There had to be innocent blood. So Jesus came and he was the innocent blood because he lived a perfect life. He was that innocent blood. See the last few years of Jesus’ life he traveled from region to region and country to country and he had 12 disciples that followed him everywhere. And he talked about the hope he was bringing.” 

The assemblies concluded with a prayer and teachers blocked the exits to prevent students from leaving, the lawsuit claimed.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/25/mississippi-high-school-forced-students-to-attend-christian-lecture/


The Gadfly wonders if any of his conservative friends can explain the difference between the Afghanistan/Pakistan Taliban forcing young people at the point of a gun to adhere to their warped ideology and these "good" Christian educators using intimidation by their official authority to indoctrinate other people's children in to their warped religious ideology?

And doesn't your heart just soar at the thought of these "educators" filling these impressionable young minds with visions of animal sacrifices and the spilling of of "innocent blood" to atone for wrongdoing?  So precious!

If any justice is to come from this lawsuit, it will be that the school officials who condoned this and any of the educators who willfully were involved in preventing students from leaving the assembly should be relieved of duty and never be allowed to set foot on publicly funded school property ever again.


----TFG

An Empire in Decline -- One Backpack at a Time . . .

The Gadfly is utterly convinced that during one of his legendary inebriated escapades of the past year or so - his earthly spirit decided to check out of the reality based world he had perceived himself to be living in and reincarnated himself into the Kafkaesque world that is foisting this kind of insanity upon humanity:

The pink bulletproof rucksack that 5-year-old Jaliyah wears to school every day reaches almost down to her knees and weighs 3lbs even when empty, but for her Colorado father, the size and solidity are part of the attraction.

"If you put it on her back, it almost covers her whole body," explains Demitric Boykin. "It was a very hard conversation to have but she knows that it's something that will keep her safe."

Lined with ballistic material that can stop a 9mm bullet travelling at 400 metres per second, the backpack is only one of a clutch of new products making their way into US schools in the wake of Newtown school massacre. As gun control legislation grinds to halt in Washington, a growing number of parents and teachers are taking matters into their own hands.

The Denver company that supplied Jaliyah's rucksack, Elite Sterling Security, has sold over 300 in the last two months and received inquiries from some 2,000 families across the US. It is also in discussion with more than a dozen schools in Colorado about equipping them with ballistic safety vests, a scaled-down version of military uniforms designed to hang in classroom cupboards for children to wear in an emergency.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/26/us-bulletproof-uniforms-gun-control


Ahh -- what a lovely vision of a grand and almighty America -- 5 year old toddlers being issued bullet proof backpacks, no doubt replete with joyful graphics of Spongebob and Dora The Explorer, and outfitted with their cute little Kevlar woven school uniforms.  All, we are being advised, in order to prepare the little tykes for the next Newtown slaughter (and believe it - there will be another) and the crazed and heavily armed madman who might breach the security of the school district trained Barney Fife janitors and rent-a-cops with their single bullet pistols.

As if that isn't mind-twisting enough, catch a load of how the proponents of this dystopian nightmare society rationalize their thought process for this deranged solution to school safety:

Abilia Security & Investigations works with schools in the Colorado Springs area to run training courses, practicing 7-10 minute drills and preparing multiple escape routes.

"The American people have traditionally viewed the classroom as a revered sanctuary that should not be sullied by any form of negative influences either of an external or internal nature," it says. "Regrettably the safeguards which were initially put into place to protect the sanctity of the classroom didn't evolve with our dramatically changing society."

Those behind this boom in school security are adamant they are not exploiting the fear, merely filling a growing need for safety.

AJ Zabadne, president of Elite Sterling Security, says his products should be seen as a routine precaution rather than something that would alarm children.

"It's like you find life jackets on ships or planes in case they go down," he says. "It's no different to having a seatbelt in a car."

No need to adjust your eyeglasses or rub your eyes to refocus after reading that last paragraph.  Yes indeed -- the security specialist who is peddling this idea (with visions of P.T. Barnum sugar plums and twinkling, dancing dollar signs in his eyes) that you need to trundle your kindergartner off to school dressed head to toe in combat armor is of the view that it really is no different than "life jackets on ships or planes," or "seatbelts in a car."

If, like The Gadfly, you still have a few tattered remnants of sensibility and logic left inside yourself after enduring such an onslaught of unmitigated psychopathic witlessness, and you find your blood pressure skyrocketing to the point that you can feel the waves of rage lapping at your eardrums like storm frothed ocean waves lapping at the cold, indifferent cement of a beach-side seawall, then count yourself among the still living, caring, and sane faction of the human race.

The Gadfly can only ask of his fellow sane human beings that you stand up and speak out against this madness.  At some point, we have to have collective faith (faith stronger than the madness that has gripped the minds of the gun loons) that reason and measured morality will triumph over the unthinking imbecility that is fast tracking this great experiment in democracy on a dead ahead destination to fallen empire status.


----TFG

Fox Spews . . . .

Yes - The Gadfly is quite aware that mocking Fox "News" really is an effortless ordeal these days for anyone with a thimble full of cognitive thinking abilities.   Practically every sane and objective human on the planet who gives a rat's ass about the truth knows that they are nothing more than a full blown propaganda machine for conservative causes, corrupt corporations, and the GOP.

But The Gadfly truly has to loudly applaud Jon Stewart.  Stewart is still, after years of routinely and more important, rightly, savaging Rupert Murdoch's clown show network practically day in and day out on his Comedy Central show The Daily Show, is still pulling yeoman's work in revealing what anti-democracy frauds the Fox cult leaders all are.  Watch:




PA-POW!!  Haha!!


----TFG

The Definition of Deregulation needs an updated entry: Corporate Terrorism . . .

What would normally have been a very huge story, the fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas last week which killed 15, injured 200 and basically blew half the town to kingdom come, was unceremoniously elbowed off the front pages by the Boston Marathon bombings.

While The Gadfly in no way minimizes the seriousness of the events in Boston, it does get The Gadfly to pondering.  As it appears at this point that the Boston bombers where basically a couple of fucked in the mind morons who more or less blundered their way to capture after their cowardly deed, let's, for shits and grins, make an apples to oranges comparison here with these two huge newsworthy events.

On one hand you have an event, criminally perpetrated, that resulted in the deaths of 3 people, 250 more injured and some property damage to a handful of businesses.  On the other hand you have an event, criminally perpetrated (will expound), that resulted in the deaths of 15 people, half of them first responders, 200+ injured, and nearly half of an entire residential community practically demolished (see accompanying photo at top of this post).

In the first event, the nation's media went in to Defcon 1 ballistic hyper-drive mode covering the Boston activities ad-nauseum from dusk to dawn and from every angle - except of course the angle containing any semblance of journalistic ethics.  In the Texas event, now that information has been released reporting that the Texas fertilizer plant had not had a state safety inspection for nearly a decade and had been storing 1300 times more ammonium nitrate than what they were legally allowed to be storing, the media's attitude is "ho-hum" - no international terrorism (real or perceived) involved, therefore no importance.

As to the aforementioned pondering, it truly leaves The Gadfly confusedly wondering just who in the royal fuck the "real terrorists" are in these two sad stories.


----TFG

Let The Little Bastards Eat Cake! But Not Before They Mow The Lawn and Mop The Floors!!

The Gadfly acknowledges that not all conservative Republicans are selfish, hateful, and cruel pricks.  However, The Gadfly can state with a bountiful amount of certitude that a convincing percentage of selfish, hateful and cruel pricks are conservative Republicans.

Case in point:

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — After a fiery floor debate, with invocations of scripture, memories of leaner times and calls to action, the West Virginia House of Delegates passed a bill to try and ensure that no school child is denied a meal because of cost.

Del. Ray Canterbury spoke against the bill, repeating that there is no such thing as a free lunch and encouraging kids to develop personal responsibility.

"I think it would be a good idea if perhaps we had the kids work for their lunches: trash to be taken out, hallways to be swept, lawns to be mowed, make them earn it," the Greenbrier County Republican said. "If they miss a lunch or they miss a meal they might not, in that class that afternoon, learn to add, they may not learn to diagram a sentence, but they'll learn a more important lesson."

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/W-Va-passes-school-lunch-bill-after-fiery-debate-4431032.php


So in other words, according to this Republican prick, the poor kids, whose parents are not financially blessed (which by the way is no fault of the child) to be able to provide them with some basic nutrition during the school day are singled out and and forced to work for the system for that tray of bland cafeteria food, which in cases of some of the most poverty stricken households may be the only meal they get some days.

The Gadfly truly wonders when the decent and sane Christians in this country are going to stand up and start speaking out about this virulent and depraved strain of Christianity that permeates the ranks of the American conservative movement.

For fuck's sake! - it has gotten to the point where these people, and it goes without saying that they are spearheaded by and cheered on by the fuckhead teabaggers, are now openly (and shamelessly) advocating forced child labor as punishment for children being from poor family circumstances.  And nobody bats an eyelash.  A pitiful handful of brave people speak up, but the nation on whole is silent.

If this degenerate mindset and philosophy is allowed to rule this country, then America will regretfully have become a nation that The Gadfly can no longer wish good things upon -- and The Gadfly makes that grim statement with a heavy heart amid diminishing hope for a better future for his own children and grandchildren.


----TFG

Wheels of Progressive Change Steamrolling ......

The Gadfly was in United States Air Force military basic training on December 8, 1980 and we had just settled down for a night after a day of good drill practice.  As we were not allowed to have radios in the barracks, somehow, and to this day I know it was due to our Tech Sargent, word filtered in to the ranks that John Lennon had been assassinated.  The flight was given light duty the following day - and no mention of what had occurred was made from the superior officers.

Business as usual.

All the more reason The Gadfly ranks John Lennon in his limited pantheon of heroes.

And just because he is in the mood, The Gadfly will gratuitously share this song with his friends:




And The Gadfly ponders to his self  --- Imagine if he were alive today.


----TFG

Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right . . .

The Gadfly decided to venture forth from his bat cave today for a bit of frivolity.  The local podunk fairgrounds was having their annual music festival and The Gadfly decided he might enjoy some fresh air, sunny skies and good music.

Upon arriving at the fairgrounds, The Gadfly was greeted at the first entrance he came across with this puke:

The Gadfly was a bit confused as he believed he was attending an event that was completely void of politics and fucking assholes and democracy haters.  Hmmm -- so The Gadfly wrestled the arm of a fairgrounds worker and inquired as to what was going on.  The worker advised that there was a gun show going on simultaneously on one side of the fairgrounds and the music festival on the other side this day.  The Gadfly shook his massive bald head and with his best Scooby Doo confounded grunt, proceeded to the separate entrance for the music party.

In the end, The Gadfly wonders two things --- what fucking Tourette Syndrome event booking genius decided to schedule a dirty fucking hippie music festival side by side with a wingnut, gun goon show on the same goddamn day??

Secondly --- Obama is Hitler??  Jesus fucking kripes.  When will the dirt stupid with these fucking people end?  What's extremely more sad than their stupid Nazi obsessions is the fact that they don't even realize that they themselves are a fucking minority in this country.  And it's a minority, thankfully, that via natural attrition - and yes - immigration, is shrinking every goddamn day.


----TFG

Kudos to the Heroes and a Fuck U To The Assholes . . .

Good news hearing that the 2nd suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings has been captured - and apparently alive at that:

The Boston Marathon bombing suspect was captured alive but wounded Friday night -- holed up in a boat in a suburban backyard following a bloody rampage that left a cop dead and a daylong manhunt that shut down the city.

The arrest of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, and the earlier death of his brother during a firefight with cops, ended five days of terror sowed by the double bombing at the marathon finish line, which killed three people, wounded 176 and left the city of Boston on edge.

"We got him," Boston Mayor Tom Menino tweeted.

"CAPTURED!!! The hunt is over. The search is done. The terror is over. And justice has won," the Boston Police Department said on its Twitter account.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/19/17823265-we-got-him-boston-bombing-suspect-captured-alive?lite


The Gadfly would like to take a moment amid the celebrating though to remind people that the rapid response and best possible outcome to this situation was as a result of a remarkable combined effort by  Federal, state and local law enforcement authorities in tracking down these monsters and seeing to it that justice is visited (in the case of the deceased 1st suspect, it already has been) upon the perpetrators.

And just who are these fantastic Federal, state and local law enforcement authorities, and and also the first responders who performed this brilliant work?  Well - for the most part they are people whose salaries are paid for by your and The Gadfly's tax dollars - in other words - public sector employees - many even members of unions horror of horrors.  They are also the same people who happen to be frequent attack targets of conservative Republicans and Tea Baggers and who are routinely demonized by those fuckheads in their idiotic and imbecilic war against government workers.

So to sum up -- The Gadfly urges all to be thankful for the quick work in bringing the bombers to justice but also requests that one take a moment to reflect on the likely catastrophic effects that would be suffered by our society if these dedicated and patriotic people weren't around to do the type of dangerous and necessary work required to keep all of us safe.

And come to think of it -- while you are applauding the efforts of these brave public sector employees, how about a big 'Fuck You' middle finger to the conservative GOP and Tea Bagger jack asses who want fewer of these people on the public payroll and who are incessantly whining about their clearly earned pay and benefits?  Make your feelings known.


----TFG

A Little Tax Day Message To Ponder . . .

The Gadfly is convinced that if he were living in a nation of sane, forward looking, reality-based people, there would be no need to point out the obvious - such as this statement re: the rate of taxation Americans pay compared to the rest of the industrialized world (and be sure to check out the chart at the link):

Americans have been trained to resent taxes even though we are trying to run an advanced economy Walmart-style.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/04/debunking-the-idea-that-americans-are-overtaxed.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29


When The Gadfly reads that sentence he focuses on the word "trained."  For in reality that word could just as easily be replaced with the word "propagandized" considering it is our political leaders, our corporate owned media and a hard core group of right wing fascists, funded by equally fascist wealthy elites, who have pounded the lie of Americans being overtaxed into the nation's collective mind.

The author of that quote then goes on to say:

My impression is that the citizens of many other countries are far less exercised about higher tax levels because they perceive they are getting value for money (medical services, good public transportation, etc). By contrast, we’ve had a 30 year campaign to make government incompetent by running it on the cheap and demonizing people who work in government jobs, and the result is less service and more corruption. This experiment is working just fine for those wealthy enough to be effectively stateless or to otherwise isolate themselves. And it will probably take at least a generation for the costs (such as public health problems) to afflict even them. Nicely played.

Nicely played indeed.  But as go most acts of deception and subterfuge, it really is only a matter of time before the people tire of being constantly lied to and begin demanding the truth and ultimately reparations for the crimes committed against them.

The Gadfly truly hopes to see the genesis of that direly needed national awakening in his lifetime.


----TFG

The Never Ending Cycle of Conservative Brutality . . . Ad Nauseum...

Fox "News" pundit (if by pundit you mean lying sack of dog shit in human form) Sean Hannity tries to justify the U of Rutgers basketball coach's sadistic behavior towards his players:

Fox News host Sean Hannity and conservative pundit Michelle Malkin on Wednesday both defended a former Rutgers basketball coach who verbally and physically abused his players, both saying that they had received plenty of spankings and "turned out okay."

On Wednesday, Rutgers announced that the school had fired coach Mike Rice after ESPN revealed video tape of him kicking players, throwing balls at the heads of players and shouting homophobic slurs like "fucking faggot" and "fucking fairy."
. . .
As the segment closed, it devolved into a discussion of Hannity and Malkin's personal experiences with giving and receiving spankings.

"My father hit me with a belt, I turned out okay!" the Fox News host exclaimed. "Except in the minds of liberals."

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/hannity-defends-rutgers-coach-my-father-hit-


To which The Gadfly would gratuitously observe - gee Sean - if your old man hit you with a belt and you feel yourself that you turned out just "okay," it stands to reason then that if your pops, in-lieu of the belt, had bashed your moronic brains in with a lead pipe, perhaps instead of just turning out "okay," you may have turned out be a fan-fucking-tastic human being thus justifying your existence in the human species, instead of being the duplicitous, loathsome media whore that you are.

Is it any wonder that some of these Republican politicians then have such selfish, callous views toward the less advantaged in our society when they themselves have been brought up in cruel and degrading households as Hanniturd seems to be testifying to??

Jeebus . . .



----TFG

The GOP Sure Do Luvs Them Some of That Old Time Religion . . .

Hey - at least they aren't hiding their utter distaste for representative democracy anymore:

Republican lawmakers in North Carolina have introduced a bill declaring that the state has the power to establish an official religion — a direct challenge to the First Amendment.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/03/17584491-first-amendment-doesnt-apply-here-nc-lawmakers-push-bill-for-state-religion?lite


Truly, The Gadfly ponders, what more than actively pushing for a state sponsored religion, such as currently exists in those bastions of democracy like Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Libya, Saudi Arabia (hint-hint), etc., do right wing Republicans have to do to prove to the American people that all of their bluster about patriotism and freedom loving and individual rights is really just one ginormous load of horseshit??

Think about it.


----TFG