Hitting The Trifecta of Right Wing Buffoonery . . .

The Week In Wingnut Stupidity! -- and sadly there are still three days to go:

First up - watch The Daily Show's John Oliver, while rapping Obama's knuckles on the NSA spying crap, deftly get in a devastating left uppercut at the frightful prospect of wimpy Democrats working together with psycho Republicans on issues of importance.  The Gadfly himself has been searching for some time for the perfect analogy to describe such a hideous coupling and Mr. Oliver delivers the goods with this gem:

OLIVER: That's right. Not only is Congress actually responding to this scandal, Democrats and Republicans are working together. That feels strange. It's like when an animal becomes friends with a totally different animal. It's lovely to see, but something about it just feels wrong. Sure, maybe they're going to work together to get a banana out of a tree, but call me cynical, but once that fruit hits the ground, you're going to end up with a dead bird and a blind monkey, both laying next to a rotten banana.

ROFL!  Here's the entire video:

Next up - catch Vermont Independent Senator Bernie Sanders gut and filet former McCain economic guru Doug Holtz-Eakins on the pitiful reasoning behind the GOP's staunch opposition to the idea of raising the federal minimum wage.  Basically Sanders curtly suggests (curtly as in here's a fist shoved up your ignorant ass) to Eakins that when practically the entire substance of your debate consists of expressing faux concern over the possibility that 15 year olds may have to work a little harder at finding a Taco Bell, Burger King or McDonald's job, you've already slit your own throat on the argument.  Here's the video:

Lastly, let us meander on over to Stephen Colbert's place and watch him rip in to the idiot Teabaggers like Tiny Tim on a Christmas ham over their latest and mostest brilliant idea of all time of spending money on an advertising campaign urging young Americans to burn their "Obamacare" cards.  The punchline being, of course, that there is no such thing as Obamacare cards nor has anything resembling such an idea ever been proposed.  But hey -- why let reality get in the way of a good rallying cry for your gullible, brain-dead troops  - right?  Take it away Stephen . . . . :

Tune in again next week kids for another fine episode of The Week In Wingnut Stupidity!

[h/t to crooksandliars.com for all three videos]



----TFG

If Ignorance Were Indeed Bliss - The Republican Party is Full of Blissful Sons of Bitches These Days . . .

Sigh . . . The Gadfly is despondent at having to share with you, dear readers, yet another peer-reviewed study demonstrating exactly how expensively and dangerously out of touch with reality the know-nothing conservative right is in this country:

Publicly funded family planning services, the kind currently being gutted by state lawmakers across the country, saved the government $10.5 billion and helped women prevent 2.2 million unplanned pregnancies and 760,000 abortions in 2010, according to a new study released by the Guttmacher Institute.

To break it down even further, taxpayers saved $5.68 for every dollar the government spent on contraceptive services that year.

Health centers that received some funding through the federal Title X program, which Republicans have also been working diligently to axe in the name of austerity, served 4.7 million women in 2010, helping to prevent 1.2 million unintended pregnancies, which would have resulted in an estimated 590,000 unplanned births and 400,000 abortions.

http://www.salon.com/2013/07/31/family_planning_services_saved_the_u_s_10_5_billion_prevented_760000_abortions_in_2010/


Read it a few more times if you need to - the easier that you may wrap your head around the cost savings numbers and societal benefits that are to be had by having a robust and publicly funded family planning infrastructure in place in America.

It is just one more glaring example of how the right wingers are so woefully and infuriatingly fucking uninformed on issues such as this one, that they do not even realize that their own dogmatic policy positions are entirely at odds with the known and provable truth, and by virtue of such, producing results 180 degrees the opposite of what they claim to want to accomplish with those policies.

The right claims that they are rabidly slashing public funding for family planning services because their morals dictate to them that abortion is evil and that family planning services are a waste of taxpayer dollars.  Yet here is a well documented study which concludes that, at the federal and state dollar level, in ONE YEAR ALONE (2010), these same planning services saved the government (we the taxpayers) $10.5 BILLION, prevented more than two million unplanned births and nearly three fourths of a million abortions.

Another way of stating it is that the entirely wrongheaded policies of the GOTP (Grand Old Tea Party) are directly responsible for more money being removed from taxpayer pockets - and even more destructive than that - millions of additional unplanned pregnancies and the inevitable abortions pursuant to such pregnancies.

And thus The Gadfly's despondency -- for The Gadfly knows that it has become a fruitless endeavor trying to speak even a measured level of sense and rationality to the modern day GOP, and specifically the Teahadists who now pretty much control the party.  They are so intent on thwarting the Muslim Kenyan in any way, shape or form, that they are more than willing to cut off their own noses to spite the rest of America's face.


----TFG

Muzak . . .

Since The Gadfly's charter statement includes music as one of his interests -- you can't go too wrong with this:







Peter Green was the heart and soul of a good band before they answered the siren call of commercialism.


----TFG

An Oldie, But a Damn Goodie . . .

The Gadfly was watching some Muay-Thai fighting on cable tv and as the matches were fairly lackluster, so he began ruminating about that Cheney/Halliburton/Iraq unholy trinity.  And The Gadfly then recalled a Lewis Black skit from a few years ago that pretty much explained the Iraq invasion in less than 5 minutes.  And watching it brought a rare smile to The Gadfly's weathered face.

Observe and enjoy:





----TFG

The Motor City Yellow Belly Mouth Speaks . . . The Gadfly Obligingly Mocks . . .

This creep is a hero, and The Gadfly means a real, rootin' tootin' bow down and kiss his Bass Pro Shops boots kind of hero, to conservatives:

Ted Nugent, the perpetually provocative hard rock guitarist, said earlier this week that black Americans should be profiled in the same manner that different breeds of dogs are considered dangerous.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/26/ted-nugent-black-americans_n_3659911.html?utm_source=concierge&utm_medium=onsite&utm_campaign=sailthru%2Bslider%2B


Here's the moral pedigree of the conservative's guitar hero:

1.  Pedophile
2.  Vietnam War draft dodger
3.  Unrepentant racist
4.  Poacher


Oh yes -- The Gadfly cannot wait to inculcate his grandchildren (The Gadfly's kids are adults and in charge of their own intellectual domains at this time) with the "values" that Mr. Nugent embodies via his public statements and actions.

Yep -- what a man.  What an admirable human being to emulate.  The Gadfly supposes that if one's goal in life was to be a hateful fucking prick, bigot and animal thrill-killer, then old Unka' Ted would indeed make an ideal role model.

At some point it might behoove conservatives to take an introspective look at themselves and particularly at some of their public spokespeople like Unka' Ted.  But The Gadfly knows that will not come to pass.  Their hate is their life blood -- it is the core of their essence. Without it, they are just a bunch of mealy-mouthed, unsociable boors who couldn't get elected dog catcher in a town with a bare majority of decent, well educated and informed people.


----TFG

If It's Societal Irrelevancy That They Want -- Who Are We To Deny Them That Dying Wish? . . .

David Cross and Amber Tamblyn demonstrate how fucking easy it has become to skewer the right wing's idiocy these days:

(h/t to crooksandliars.com)

It is pretty apparent to The Gadfly that the GOP is about as insistent as all get out about dooming their political party, the once proud party of Lincoln, to permanent minority status.

Let's face it - handing over the party reins to the Teabaggers and their open and gleeful hostility towards women, minorities, irreligious folk and anyone not as starkly fucking stupid and self-destructive as themselves can pretty much be taken as a robust indication that they aren't in the least bit interested in competently and judiciously governing the country and doing all of the people's business.  In fact, it can pretty much be taken as a conspicuous admission that they are simply incapable of performing the job and would really just prefer to destroy the country from within - for even as dumb as they are - the demographics reality of their eventual future demise is plain for all of them to see and so like the intellectually and emotionally stunted lemmings that they have evolved in to, they're intent on taking all of us over the cliff with them when their Waterloo moment arrives.

Pathetic bastards.


----TFG

Corporations Are People -- A People With Their Very Owned and Operated Justice System . . .

Meanwhile - in the multitudinous annals of corporate criminality:

Halliburton has admitted destroying evidence in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and will plead guilty to a criminal charge, the Justice Department announced Thursday.

Under the plea agreement, which requires court approval, Houston-based Halliburton will also face three years' probation, pay the maximum fine of $200,000 and continue to cooperate in the Justice Department's criminal investigation of the April 2010 explosion and fire on the drilling platform, which killed 11 rig workers off Louisiana.

The Justice Department said it would not pursue further criminal charges against Halliburton or its subsidiaries.

Separately, Halliburton made a $55 million "voluntary contribution" to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/07/25/halliburton-guilty-plea-destroying-evidence-deepwater-horizon/2588105/


Fascinating.  If The Gadfly understands this story, with any cogent level of accuracy, it can be summarized thusly:

Former Vice President Dick Cheney's company Halliburton colludes with British Petroleum to destroy damning evidence of gross negligence related to the Deep Horizon oil spill disaster which claimed 11 human lives and befouled thousands of miles of U.S. coastline, including areas containing pristine nature preserves. As "punishment" no individuals are charged with a crime although the company itself (because corporations are people dontcha' know?) does plead guilty to a single corporate criminal charge, pays a $200,000 fine and is allowed to make a "voluntary contribution" of $55 million to a nature conservancy group.  The Gadfly let loose with thunderous laughter reading those words - "voluntary contribution" - if for no other reason than the alternative involved the sudden onset of tightened stomach muscles and eventual voluntary vomiting.

According to The Gadfly's calculations, the total monetary payout ($55,200,000) that Halliburton is on the hook for as "punishment" for their criminal actions - is equal to .14% of the totality of the profits that they raked in for their role in providing military logistical support for George and Dick's wonderful and magical Iraq adventure.

Apparently the crime of negligent homicide in the lives of 11 men and treating America's precious natural resources like their own personal toilet can be languidly mitigated by admitting guilt (corporate person-hood style) and dashing off a check to the charity of your "choice."  In this new world order of corporations are people too, it really is not all that different from paying your mechanic to repair the front end of your car after you deliberately ran over that 3-foot wide, 2-foot deep pothole.  It's the simple cost of doing business.

In closing -- crime in America most certainly does pay dear readers, and if you are of the view it does not, then you really have some 'splainin' to do Lucy about this sordid Halliburton business.


---TFG

Pretty Please Mr. Putin? We Promise Not to Hook Up Jumper Cables to the Lad's Scrotum Sac! . . .

The Gadfly is back from a torturous week of 10 hour a-day tech training.  It's good to be back at the homestead.

Now - where did we leave off? . . . hmmm . . . No matter - the opening line of this post is as good a place as any to resume our discourse

(Reuters) - The United States has made a formal promise to Russia not to execute or torture Edward Snowden if he is sent home to face charges of illegally disclosing government secrets, and the Kremlin said Russian and U.S. security agencies are in talks over his fate.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/26/us-usa-security-letter-idUSBRE96P0NV20130726


Count The Gadfly skeptical, but a country that constantly invokes it's "moral standing" to the rest of the planet's nations in world affairs, may very well be quite unworthy of such standing if they are having to grovel and put forth public promises to one of the world's foremost totalitarian/torture states - and one that is currently run by a former KGB spook - that it will not execute or torture one of it's own citizens.

It'll be a generation before the stain of this country's post 9/11 dumbassery is a faded and best forgotten memory.


----TFG

Perhaps Uncle Sam Needs to Find Another Line of Work Aside from "Liberating" People . . .

Remember this gem?:

Mr. Russert: If your analysis is not correct, and we're not treated as liberators, but as conquerors, and the Iraqis begin to resist, particularly in Baghdad, do you think the American people are prepared for a long, costly, and bloody battle with significant American casualties?

Vice President Cheney: Well, I don't think it's likely to unfold that way, Tim, because I really do believe that we will be greeted as liberators. I've talked with a lot of Iraqis in the last several months myself, had them to the White House.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5145.htm

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3080244/ns/meet_the_press/t/transcript-sept/#.UewwwI2TiU4


Fast forward a decade:

BAGHDAD -- A coordinated wave of seven car bombs tore through bustling commercial streets Saturday night in Shiite areas of Baghdad, part of a relentless wave of violence that killed at least 46 inside and outside the capital.

The car bombs detonated after the iftar meal that breaks the daily fast of the holy month of Ramadan. Many people head out to shop or relax in coffee shops in the cooler evenings after fasting ends.

Bombings and other attacks have now killed more than 250 people since the start of Ramadan on July 10, according to an Associated Press count. The violence is a continuation of a surge of bloodshed that has rocked Iraq for months, reviving fears of a return to the widespread sectarian killings that pushed the country to the brink of civil war after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/20/car-bombings-iraq_n_3629212.html

Boy we sure "liberated" them fucking Iraqis to death -- didn't we Mr. Cheney?

The Gadfly elects not to recount the plethora of lies that were sold to the American people by George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleeza Rice and Donald Rumsfeld to promote that noxious war of choice.  That would be an horribly arduous and time consuming task.

And The Gadfly will also not recount the abysmal behavior of the corporate mainstream media who acted as cheerleaders and sales representatives for going to war and who, when hostilities eventually commenced, literally "embedded" themselves with the military command structure so that they could be spoon-fed their lies as opposed to having to actually perform their fucking job function of journalism in order to gather the information that they were obliged to present to the American public as unbiased "news."

Suffice to say that history (and that documenting process has already begun) will not look upon the United States as the vaunted and heroic "liberators" that Cheney smugly bragged about in that Russert interview, for the passage of time and reality has effectively shown at this point that that viewpoint has always been nothing more than an inebriated fantasy bouncing around like a ping-pong ball inside DUI Dick's fevered dreams.


----TFG

At Least They're Being Up Front With Their Bigotry These Days . . .

When it comes to measuring the abominable odor level of walking pieces of human shit, Rush Limbaugh is still the mighty king of that throne.  But The Gadfly must say that Fox's Sean Hannity is making an admirable play for El Rushbo's crown:

Hannity Asks If Obama Compared Himself To Trayvon Martin Because "He Smoked Pot And He Did A Little Blow"

http://mediamatters.org/video/2013/07/19/hannity-asks-if-obama-compared-himself-to-trayv/194976


Apparently Mr. Hanniturd was upset about President Obama, a black male in case some haven't noticed, for saying truthfully, that he, as a young man, could have been Trayvon Martin.

A thoughtful, perceptive, questioning and arguably sane person might have heard the President's words and been struck by the sincerity, pensiveness, clarity and melancholy, not to mention truthfulness - but that presumes that such a person has a normally functioning soul and a heart.

So basically - the first thing that came to Hanniturd's mind upon hearing Obama's words -- and The Gadfly can damn well guarantee you it mirrors the mindset of his viewership, which is mostly white, middle-aged, conservative males -- is that Obama said what he said because he smoked pot and tried cocaine as a young man - and that was Obama's only connection to the dead kid in Florida.

Hanniturd is a hero to these pathetic, white conservative males for this reason and this reason alone.  Like a great many of his fanboys, he is an unrepentant bigot, uneducated, pathetically uninformed and misinformed about the world outside his Fox "News" studio and the gated compound where he resides, and he's proud of it.  His smug, prickish arrogance is solely responsible for The Gadfly having to cease watching any of his Fox show - for fear of The Gadfly ending up in the hospital emergency room with a hand full of broken plastic and glass from slugging his big screen teevee screen while Hanniturd's mug was on it spewing his bile.

Anyhow, The Gadfly wonders when enough decent Americans are just going to finally stand up and collectively bitch slap these right wing dirt bags back into the neanderthal caves where they shuffled from? They have long, long since crossed over the decency threshold - particularly as it pertains to public discourse and fomenting hatred and violence over the public airwaves.  How much longer can the civilized structure of our American society endure these fuckers before they end up starting a race war or another civil war?


---TFG


**P.S. :  The Gadfly is purposely avoiding weighing in on the dreadful outcome of the Zimmerman trial. Many more writers, journalists and bloggers, all much more eloquent than The Gadfly, have already said what needed to be said about the matter and The Gadfly's view would simply be redundant.  Suffice to say though, that The Gadfly is of the belief that this country that he loves is staring in to the abyss of societal failure on a grand scale when it begins licensing it's citizenry to murder without repercussion.  It is all downhill in to the shithole of fallen empires from there.

You wonder if the madness will ever end -- Trying to stop it is futile . . . Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo

Hmmmmm . . . .

THOMAS B. EDSALL July 17, 2013, 11:34 pm 833 Comments

Has the G.O.P. Gone Off the Deep End?

Humming the Spongebob musical doodle tune while he consults his Magic 8-Ball for the answer to the question above . . . .



Think you control it, but it's way too hard
Everytime it plays, it's an electric charge
The sound in your head is brutal
Now you're infected by the musical doodle
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Gonna listen again to the musical doodle
----------------------------------------­----
The song that you ran from is back again
You wonder if the madness will ever end
Trying to stop it is futile
So just listen now to my musical doodle
----------------------------------------­----
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo, musical doodle
Listen again to the musical doodle!



. . . . and the answer to Tom Edsall's question is . . .

● It is decidedly so

Thank you dear reader for tuning in to another fine edition of Gadfly's Simple Answers to Simple Questions.

Read the article -- it's a hoot:

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/17/has-the-g-o-p-gone-off-the-deep-end/

----TFG


**P.S. :  To the even more important issue at hand -Yes - The Gadfly's impressionable brain has been infected by the musical doodle . . . . . sigh . . .

Quizzing House Members on their Constitutional Knowledge -- Alan Grayson Style . . . .

The Gadfly dearly wishes that he had a human cloning device.  If The Gadfly had such a device, he would set to work immediately creating an army of Alan Graysons and run them all as political candidates for Congress.

Observe Mr. Grayson's brilliance and rapier wit:






This is an amendment that Congressman Grayson added on to The Defense Authorization Bill.

The Defense Authorization Bill is currently being fast-tracked and rubber-stamped through Congress (because God knows, more murderous war machines and double-naught spy gizmos needs a makin').

Grayson added the amendment to make a statement about the Snowden revelations that the NSA is massively collecting and storing American's private electronic communications without any oversight and all under the pretense of national security.  Mr. Grayson's amendment calls for zero taxpayer dollars funding of these activities.

Notice anything familiar about the wording of Congressman Grayson's Amendment?

Do the words "upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized " ring a bell?

The Gadfly is truly curious whether the Teabaggers and the GOP (and likely a few blueballs Democrats) will actually go on the record as voting against the 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution


Grayson deserves a fucking medal for throwing this nice little bomb into the well of the House chamber.



----TFG

Oh Dear! Oh Me!! Oh My!!! Oh Dear, Oh Me, Oh My!!!! . . . . .

There are known knowns; there are things we know that we know.

~ ~ United States Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld

Yawn . . . . . . . :

Earlier this week, tea party activists and GOP lawmakers gathered near the Capitol to rail against an immigration reform bill passed by the Senate.

While the event was linked to a number of controversial figures, including an organizer who has argued for eugenics and called African-Americans a "retrograde species," that didn't deter Republicans like Rep. Steve King (Iowa) and Sens. Jeff Sessions (Ala.) and Ted Cruz (Texas) from showing up to join the chorus against a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

When Ken Crow -- a co-founder of the Tea Party Community -- stepped up to the microphone, however, George Zornick of The Nation said he was taken aback by the talk of "breeding" and racial purity that followed.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/18/gop-anti-immigration_n_3618392.html


The Gadfly is yawning for the simple reason that media reports of the Tea Party having racist elements at the very core of their existence is not news.  It is not news in any sense that the word "news" implies.  As the inimitable Don Rumsfeld stated in the quote at the top of this post - it is a "known known," something "we know that we know."  So for the media to feign outrage at this stuff - it is, at it's most benign ignorance (willful or otherwise) of the world outside of their beltway bubble, and at it's most malignant, it is gross incompetence to the point of their industry being so structurally and ethically compromised that it no longer serves a useful public purpose.

Allow The Gadfly to recount a condensed history of the Tea Party for you dear reader:

• White, male Presidents from the country's inception.  No Tea Party.

• The White President from 2000 to 2008 inherited a national surplus from the outgoing White President and promptly gave it away to the wealthiest Americans in the form of the biggest tax cut in history that benefited primarily the top 2% of income earners.  He ignored the outgoing President's warning of international terrorism's threats to the country and was on vacation in August, 2001 when his security adviser warned of a fellow named Bin Laden being determined to attack the country on it's own soil. He was then "shocked" a month later on Sept. 11, 2001 when that same fellow's pals flew airliners into American skyscrapers and the Pentagon killing 3000 people. In reactionary response, he then trampled the constitution, looted the national treasury to pay for ill-advised wars of choice, and made America a war crimes accused country by torturing prisoners. He labeled Americans with dissenting views on the decision to invade a country that had nothing to do with the 9/11 attack as being unpatriotic and warned them to keep their mouths shut.  Concurrently, he was empowering Wall Street and the banking industry by gutting regulatory oversight, and subsequently presided over the worst economic crisis in America since the Great Depression, bailed out the economic gamblers and swindlers on Wall Street and the banking industry with taxpayer money, and attempted to hand over the Social Security system to these same Wall Street criminals. All of this and yet - still no Tea Party.

• Negro elected President Nov. 4, 2008.  Negro officially inaugurated President of The United States on January 20, 2009.  Tea Party formed February 2009.

The Gadfly rests his fucking case.



----TFG

You'll Shoot Your Eye Out!! . . .

Jeebus:

Two Milwaukee men -- each with a state permit to carry a concealed weapon -- traded dozens of shots in a rolling shootout through two sides of town and down a freeway...

Both men admitted they were in a gunfight but said the other had fired the first shot. Both were arrested and interviewed by Milwaukee police detectives...

Adamany said when he first took off after the Dodge, he though he was doing the right thing. I "just kept thinking: What about the next person? What if they didn't have a gun?" he said. "I think they were looking for a random person to shoot, honestly."

http://www.twincities.com/wisconsin/ci_23652611/milwaukee-pair-men-concealed-carry-permits-engage-shootout


Ahh yes -- and for the umpteenth fucking time -- what could possibly go wrong by issuing concealed weapons permits to any Rootin' Tootin' Shootinest' Yosemite Sam wannabe who shows up at the county clerk's office demanding his Constitutional right to play with his growed' up cap guns?

This adolescent-minded society of ours is so irreparably fucked that The Gadfly just has to laugh at how badly and hopelessly screwed we all are.



----TFG

Eeeny Meeny Miny Moe - Catch The Real Terrorists by the Toe . . . .

These are the numbnut charlatans that Fox "News" trots out in front of the camera and bills as "liberal" counterweights to the conservaquacks on their bobble-head shows:

Beckel: "I Would Not Have Another Mosque Built In This Country Until We Got It Worked Out Who Is Not A Terrorist"





The Gadfly might be inclined to agree with Bob Beckel if it weren't for one, simple fact:  Since the terror attacks of 9/11, more U.S. citizens have been killed by right wing extremist violence and more homegrown, right wing extremists have been indicted for attacks on U.S. soil than jihadi-linked terrorists:

Over the past several years, acts or plots of non-jihadist terrorism have derived almost entirely from right-wing extremists like the soldiers' militia in Georgia and the anti-government group in Louisiana. Of the 54 non-jihadist terrorists indicted between 2010 and 2012, 47 were right-wing extremists.

Seven were leftists or animal rights extremists. For instance, three were participants in Occupy Chicago, a leftist political movement, and were indicted on terrorism charges last June for plotting to throw Molotov cocktails at President Barack Obama and other officials during a NATO summit in Chicago. Their lawyers say anundercover government agent had urged them to plot the attacks and build the firebombs.

Since 9/11, at least 29 people living in the United States have been killed by right-wing extremists, while 17 have been killed by jihadist extremists, the majority of whom died in one incident: the 2009 massacre at Fort Hood, Texas. Of course, this story would be much different if al Qaeda recruit Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab had detonated a bomb hidden in his underwear aboard Northwest Flight 253 on Christmas Day 2009.

That's not all:

But it would also be much different if city workers hadn't spotted a suspicious backpack left on the route of a Martin Luther King Jr. parade in Spokane, Washington, in January 2011, in which white supremacist Kevin Harpham had hidden a bomb packed with fishing weights coated in rat poison. Or if police hadn't discovered a napalm bomb and several other live, wired explosives in the suburban Cleveland home of right-wing extremist Matthew Fairfield in April 2010.

And of all the people indicted on terrorism charges in the United States since 9/11, no jihadist suspect has ever acquired or attempted to acquire chemical, biological or radiological weapons, while at least 11 right- and left-wing terrorists either obtained such materials or made serious attempts to do so.

In 2003, federal agents discovered "nearly two pounds of a cyanide compound and other chemicals that could create enough poisonous gas to kill everyone inside a space as large as a big-chain bookstore or a small-town civic center" at the home of Judith Bruey and her husband, William Krar, according to an Associated Press report. Alongside the arsenal of chemical weapons were about 60 pipe bombs, several machine guns, remote-controlled bombs disguised as briefcases, and anti-Semitic, anti-black, and anti-government literature, the report said.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/04/opinion/bergen-right-wing-violence


Now, some of The Gadfly's vengeful, albeit misguided, detractors might take this post as a traitorous defense of Islamic terrorists.  Which would be pretty fucking stupid - not to mention personally offensive - offensive to the point of The Gadfly challenging such claimants to come visit his old hippie/biker ass so that he might plant one of his size 10, American-made motorcycle boots upside your torpid ass.

The point here is that Bob Beckel and Fox and Friends are a bunch of xenophobic, fear mongering frauds and their viewers are gullible, uneducated buffoons who would be wholly inclined to believe you, without batting an eyelash, if you were to tell them that the current President of The United States is a Kenyan-born Muslim who is intent on installing himself as dictator for life and imposing Sharia law throughout the land . . . . . oh wait . . . . . never mind . . . .

Anyhow -- back to the more salient message of The Gadfly's point -- if Beckel's criteria for his statement, as it makes reasonable sense, is that American Muslims should have their civil, constitutional and religious rights trampled upon because of the unsanctioned actions of other disassociated Muslims, then why isn't there a similar outcry against American right-wing extremists, who The Gadfly would bet dollars to donuts are mostly of the Christian faith, for their violence, which has claimed more human lives and resulted in more criminal indictments since 9/11?

Talk like Beckel's is blow-hard narcissism at it's most simplistic and frightfully dangerous at the other end of the spectrum - for like the Nazis in pre WWII Germany, it assigns unmitigated blame for a society's upheaval and wretched circumstances to a small section of the populace, and then foments hatred and violence against those people to the point that the act of killing 6 million of them becomes a mere "solution" to their perceived grievances.

The Gadfly despises Fox and Rupert Murdoch for putting these idiotic hate mongers like Beckel and company on the public airwaves.  Hopefully Murdoch's living days are coming to a quick end (natural causes is just fine by The Gadfly) soon - either that or the UK authorities finally tire of his corrupt old ass and get serious about frog marching him off to the Chokey.


----TFG

Girl - Don't Go Away Mad! Girl - Just Go Away!! . . . .

Jeebus.

Apparently the mother grizzly of all attention whores has yet to satiate her hunger for even more adulation from the sociopaths and the witch doctor crowd:

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) is considering going back on the ballot.

In an interview on "The Sean Hannity Show" Tuesday, the 2008 vice presidential candidate indicated she might throw her hat in the ring to become one of Alaska's U.S. Senators.

"I've considered it because people have requested me considering it," Palin said, after Hannity mentioned rumors of a potential Senate run.

"I'm still waiting to see, you know, what the lineup will be and hoping that, there again, there will be some new blood, new energy -- not just kind of picking from the same old politicians in the state," Palin continued.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/09/sarah-palin-senate-run_n_3569374.html


The Gadfly wonders (as in laughing uproariously while musing aloud) -- have any of Caribou Barbie's snake handlers explained to her that the position of U.S. Senator is a 6-year job - unlike the 4 year job she had as Alaska Governor which she abandoned after 2 years when the going got tough?

As annoying as she is, The Gadfly does have to admit that the Wasilla Wingnut's continued presence on the national political scene is always good for the entertainment value -- if by entertainment you mean repeatedly cockpunching yourself until your eyeballs spurt blood and you are wheezing like a final-stage emphysema victim.


----TFG

Your Weekly Punch to the Solar Plexus . . . .

Hardly surprising to The Gadfly, but still appalling when viewed in the context of human morality and decency:

A global super-rich elite had at least $21 trillion (£13tn) hidden in secret tax havens by the end of 2010, according to a major study.

The figure is equivalent to the size of the US and Japanese economies combined.

The Price of Offshore Revisited was written by James Henry, a former chief economist at the consultancy McKinsey, for the Tax Justice Network.

Tax expert and UK government adviser John Whiting said he was sceptical that the amount hidden was so large.

Mr Whiting, tax policy director at the Chartered Institute of Taxation, said: "There clearly are some significant amounts hidden away, but if it really is that size what is being done with it all?"

Mr Henry said his $21tn is actually a conservative figure and the true scale could be $32tn. A trillion is 1,000 billion.

Mr Henry used data from the Bank of International Settlements, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and national governments.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18944097


The study further notes that the $21 TRillion does not include fixed assets such as real estate property and luxury possessions such as yachts and cars.  It's all cold hard cash baby.

It is estimated conservatively that $300 billion alone could practically eradicate worldwide (worldwide as in the whole fucking planet) hunger over the next decade ($30 billion per year).  Apparently though, the elites feel that $300 billion, which equates to approximately 1.5% of their total stash of $21 trillion, is simply way too much money to be spread around -- and money with a minimal or no ROI (Return On Investment) to boot. Oh no - can't have that - can we?  Nope - they would much rather spend their "hard earned" cash buying up the millions of homes that their criminal accomplices on Wall Street and in the banking industry have foreclosed on as a result of their manufactured world wide economic "crisis."  Their loot is also better spent buying the souls and the votes of the politicians and judges to clear all of the oversight and regulatory hurdles from their path so that they can consolidate their wealth and power in addition to compounding the misery and indentured servitude of the remainder of society.

The Gadfly is certain though that this form of depraved gluttony by the few cannot last forever. And while The Gadfly cannot predict when the tide will turn against these monsters, and it eventually will as history has proven over and over again, he is fairly certain of one thing -- when the time does come for these Galtian overlords, and/or their heirs, to be held truly accountable for their unforgiving viciousness toward their fellow human beings, it is likely to be one helluva bloody culmination to a long (and already bloody) history of economic iniquity and the propagation of human suffering in the never ending, psychotic pursuit of power and profit.


---TFG

But We're the "Moral Authority" . . . (two words that ought to scare the shit out of anyone who loves democracy)

Sigh --- another "No Shit Sherlock" discovery:

By Bill Briggs
NBC News contributor

Drone strikes — billed by President Barack Obama as tactically surgical and less deadly to civilians than conventional air power — are 10 times more likely to cause innocent casualties than bombs or missiles unleashed from U.S. jets, according to a new study based on classified military documents.

http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/02/19254842-study-us-drone-strikes-more-likely-to-kill-civilians-than-us-jet-fire?lite


The Gadfly has some significant disagreements with President Obama on a variety of issues.

This issue is significant.

Blowing up a whole house full of women and children just to get one pissant jihadi asshole is fucking not an effective way to position your country as the moral arbiter of right and wrong in the world.

In fact - it makes you look like an uncaring, fucking unrepentant bully and tyrant.

Obama is being advised by some real stone-age fucking characters and they aren't doing their jobs solely in the interest of national security.  The Gadfly doubts that Obama has any political courage or will to look those murderers in the eye and question their judgement.  It's a conundrum.

Bottom line is - this country is run by sociopaths and it makes The Gadfly question the validity of this government (Democrat or Republican) and the people who are running it.

Think about it.  They have already lied us in to two wars.  They have lied to us about their domestic spying activities.  They have lied to us.  Liars.  Liars. Liars.

Lying Liars. It's what they are.

'Nuff said . . .





----TFG

An Independence Day Testimonial That Doesn't Give a Shit about Fireworks or Flags or . . . .

The Gadfly had a very special motivation, not associated with America's founding, for celebrating this year's Independence Day festivities.

One year ago yesterday, The Gadfly's oldest son died suddenly from a ruptured aorta.

It rocked The Gadfly's world.

The Gadfly's son was actually an adopted son.  The Gadfly had married an El Salvadoran refugee beauty many years ago who had children from a previous, disastrous relationship.  That woman, who was a businesswoman in her home country had fled her homeland because of Ronald Reagan's support of murderous death squads back in the mid 1980's and the civil wars that had ensued as a result of that U.S. support.

The brother of The Gadfly's wife had been brutally murdered by these U.S. financed thugs and it arrived at a point that she no longer felt safe to live and do business in her home country as a result, and fled El Salvador for the United States -- where she and The Gadfly eventually came together in 1987.

The Gadfly worked tirelessly for 2 years to bring his spouse's children to this country legally through the maze of immigration laws -- and finally they arrived in 1989 - and a family was complete.

The Gadfly raised those kids.  He taught them.  He shared with them.  He loved them.  They weren't El Salvadoran refugees to The Gadfly -- they were his own kids.

So losing that oldest son one year ago truly tripped up The Gadfly's life plans.  That son was so proud to have become an American.  He loved the yearly celebrations -- it was arguably his favorite holiday of the year.  And then in a blink of an eye - The Gadfly's son was gone.  It's been a year and The Gadfly is still struggling with that loss.

But now The Gadfly has reached his grieving apex and is ready to move on -- not forget -- but move on.

The Gadfly is devoting his efforts here on this shitty blog to his beloved son Fredy.  His pal, his shoulder to cry on, his child.

Thank you for reading this blog dear readers.  Thank you for the support.   The Gadfly will not waver from his quest to see a better America, a more equitable America, a more just America -- a more caring America.

And with that, The Gadfly leaves you with this:





That is the goal of this blog -- fighting the good fight.  Join The Gadfly in his quest.  Make things right again in this great nation (sure it sounds corny, but you fucking better make a choice dear reader - time is of the essence).



----TFG

4th of July

Happy Independence Day dear readers.

Try to remember why we fought and died for that independence to begin with (and no it wasn't just so we could drink whisky and rye - although The Gadfly does recognize that as a worthy cause worth fighting for - lol).





Have fun.  Be safe.



----TFG

Don't Be The Frog in the Slowly Boiling Pot of Water America . . . . .

This is the America that the Koch Bros. and the Wall Street money barons along with their bought and paid for mercenaries in the GOP and the Tea Party envision:

In the past 15 years, however, the town of roughly 27,000 people has lost more than 5,000 manufacturing jobs. Companies like century-old Thomasville Furniture Industries, Inc., Duracell, and others downsized, relocated or closed.

From 2007-2010 alone, unemployment spiked from 5.5 to 13.5 percent. Today, with an unemployment rate of 9.1 percent, Thomasville still ranks higher than the state and nationwide averages.

Mike Turner was laid off in 2005 from Thomasville Furniture,  but found factory work in nearby town, much like many of his former co-workers.

"All of those guys were struggling," said Turner. "Some of them didn't even know how to read or write. Furniture was all they knew."

The town’s economic hardship has since translated into a hunger problem. It touches those who cannot find work, those who are sick, single-parent households, traditional households, the elderly, and children.

And despite the best efforts of Turner, and other local organizations, sparse food donations, unapproved grants, and inadequate funding have made it difficult to provide enough food for the growing number of needy families.

http://inplainsight.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/03/19119404-after-jobs-move-out-hunger-takes-root-in-factory-town?lite


It is all about creating a perpetually dependent and subservient underclass of American workers whom the moneyed elites can manipulate and string along by virtue of some politically well-timed, token safety net giveaways which amount to to the equivalent of breadcrumbs in their world.  More than anything, however, it is the mere presence of this impoverished, and now predominant social order, that the Kochs and friends intend to sustain, and plan to cynically utilize as a weapon of fear, to keep the remnants of a once thriving middle class in line and nearly equally subservient.

And The Gadfly will tell you one thing that is for certain and that is happening as we speak which is meant to expedite this new world order --- the destruction of the public education system and the rise of the  privatized education system, wherein little Dick and Jane can be taught the way and the glory of unfettered and unregulated capitalism and forgo the teaching of honest, introspective U.S. and world history, or science or social studies or art and music -- or god forbid - ethnic studies.

These fuckers, as George Carlin so eloquently stated -- want nothing more than obedient, non-thinking workers whom they consider nothing more than company-owned assets who are uneducated, poor and hopelessly NOT upwardly mobile.  It is basically their own wholly purchased population of slave labor.

Watch a quick 3 minute video of George explaining it:





So there.

The people of Thomasville, NC are just as fucked as around 60% of the rest of the country.  The Gadfly said it.  He is not happy about it, but it is the truth.

This is not an accident of changing economic times folks.  This shit has been planned for quite some time -- and by all appearances the plan has been executed to stealthy perfection.  How else can you account for the taxpayers bailing all of these fucking banks and financial instrument companies out after their criminal behavior and now these same fuckers are posting hand-over-fist profits again and right back at the same goddamn financial roulette wheel that brought about the collapse of the world economy to begin with?

The Gadfly is not shy about stating his opinion about these people.  They are out and out monsters.  So much unneeded suffering by their fellow countrymen and nary an offer of sacrifice on their own part to ease that suffering.  Nothing.  In fact they continue to pump money in to the campaign coffers of those soulless fucking politicians that they have recruited to go to Washington D.C. and do their bidding.  They are like leeches - the more blood they suck, the more life they have.

The Gadfly surmises that if he is lucky, he might have another 25-30 years of conscious life left in this plane of existence.  It sure would be a wonderful denouement to The Gadfly's life if he were able to stick around long enough to see these sons of bitches brought to heel by the power of We The People.

But until the collective batch of courage and the accompanying will to stand up and say - "no more" - is gathered and focused where it needs to be focused by the aggrieved masses, the song will remain the same:





----TFG