It Only Hurts When The Gadfly Laughs and Falls Off His Barstool......

Sometimes pin-point accurate humor is the best weapon against idiocy . . .






Merry christmas . . .



----TFG

A Gadfly Wish . . . .

Dear readers:

have a,

happy christmas,
a merry new year,
a feliz hanukkah,
joy to your channukkah,
festivus for the rest of you as you air your grievances,
and just have a damn cheerful whatever else that floats your spiritual boat,
along with good tidings in the new year . . .


That's all.



----TFG

They Truly Have No Shame . . . .

[ Click to Enlarge ]

You know dear readers -- the Fox "News" political propaganda machine posing as a legitimate "news" organization shtick was amusing for awhile, then just tedious and repetitious buffoonery, but now they are taking it to a new and dangerous level -- namely utilizing their powerful public platform to engage in the willful deception of their viewers by manipulating news content in order to purposefully distort real-time events with the goal of promoting the view of their chosen ideology -- and that dear readers changes the whole fucking ball game.

Observe:

DECEMBER 22, 2014, 3:34 PM EST A Fox affiliate in Baltimore aired a segment on Sunday showing footage from a "Justice For All" demonstration in Washington, D.C. in which it edited a chant to sound like protestors were shouting "kill a cop."

"At this rally in Washington, D.C. protestors chanted, 'we won't stop, we can't stop, so kill a cop,'" the WBFF broadcast said.

But the full footage, flagged by Gawker on Monday via C-SPAN, revealed that the chant was "we won't stop, we can't stop, 'til killer cops are in cell blocks."

The protest was attended by Rev. Al Sharpton. YouTube videos of the misinterpreted chant contain labels such as "Sharpton's 'Go Kill A Cop' March."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/fox-wbff-edit-protest-kill-a-cop


These duplicitous fuckers are openly attempting to provoke a race war in this country.  And to the best of The Gadfly's half-century of earned knowledge, that is not an element of the charter of what constitutes a credible and responsible news organization.

It is long past time for the FCC to stand up and do it's fucking job by yanking this particular Fox affiliate's broadcast license until as such time they can demonstrate beyond the shadow of reasonable doubt that they can be entrusted with the responsibility of utilizing THE PUBLICLY OWNED airwaves in a responsible and ethical manner.

That is the only action that will get the message across to Rupert Murdoch and his army of propagandist stooges that they do not now, nor ever have owned the public airwaves to do with as they please and that stoking the fire of of racial discontent is a pretty fucking vile and immoral thing to be doing, not to mention wholly fucking un-American -- in fact it rivals the very kind of media manipulation and treachery employed by the Nazi Party in pre-WW2 Germany and in the post WW2 communist Soviet Union.

Enough is fucking enough.




----TFG

Hey Rudy Giuliani! . . . Mr. Ed Wants His Teeth Back Asshole! . . . .

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Hello, I'm Rudy Giuliani... 

A horse is a horse, of course of course, 

and no one can talk to a horse of course, 

that is of course, unless the horse, 

Is the famous Rudy G! 

Go right to the source and ask the horse. 

He'll give you the answer that you'll endorse. 

He's always on a steady course. 

Talk to Rudy G.

People yak-it-ti-yak a streak 

and waste your time of day, 

but Rudy G will never speak, 

unless he has something to say... 

A horse is a horse, of course of course, 

And this one will talk 'til his voice is hoarse. 

You never heard of a talking horse? 

Well, listen to this... 

I am Rudy G . . .

The Gadfly instinctively knew they were going to go there after the NYC cop killings - you know - that place where most parasitic organisms go to feed voraciously off of a host - represented in this instance by the emotions of the least critical thinking faction of the American people and a gutless and neutered media:

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani attributed the execution-style assassination of two police officers on Saturday afternoon to the protests that broke out across the city following a grand jury’s failure to indict a police officer for killing Eric Garner.

“We’ve had four months of propaganda starting with the president that everybody should hate the police,” Giuliani said during an appearance on Fox News on Sunday.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/12/21/3606040/rudy-giuliani-2-nyc-cops-were-killed-because-obama-told-everyone-to-hate-the-police/

Let's view all of this in the context of Rudy Giuliani being the conservative fucking Einstein who against wiser people's advice, including that of the NYPD, drove the decision to locate New York City's emergency command center in the World Trade Center, even after the 1993 terror bombing had occurred there.  That command center, as history sadly denotes, was subsequently destroyed when the 7 WTC building collapsed.  Giuliani then had the fucking gall to pimp his 2008 Presidential campaign on the fact that he just so happened to be mayor of NYC on 9/11, so incessantly and brazenly, that he and his opportunistic campaign were mocked in to the dustbin of history when Joe Biden joked on national tv that a noun + a verb + 9/11 was everything that encompassed Giuliani's platform vocabulary.

Pursuant to that bit of monkey business - allow The Gadfly to get something on the table right out of the chute here - FUCK RUDY GIULIANI!  Fuck his stupid horse-teeth face and fuck everyone who thinks as cynically and as idiotically as him.

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It is beyond the pinnacle of hypocrisy for horse teeth Rudy and his right wing moron sycophants on Fox "News" to blame police-brutality protesters and the Democratic Mayor of NYC and the Democratic President for the actions of a lone lunatic who killed those police officers -- even more so before all of the facts of the case have been gathered and vetted and the officer's corpse's are cold.

These are the same phony fucking conservative assholes who kept their big fat, bile filled pie-holes clamped shut tighter than Dick Cheney's sphincter when gun nuts and Cliven Bundy groupies Jerad and Amanda Miller shot and killed two Las Vegas PD officers in the back of the head this past June while they were eating lunch, then draped the Tea Party Don't Tread on Me flag over them as they fled.

Nor have these asshats yet publicly condemned Generalissimo Bundy's followers for aiming sniper rifles at the heads of, and openly stating they would shoot, law enforcement people as those law enforcement people attempted to perform their duties, duties which by the way were, whether agreed with or not, entirely within the construct of existing state and federal laws.

If horse-teeth Rudy and his gang want to have a real honest discussion about how and who's rhetoric inspires people to violence, then by all means, let's have that public discussion -- but -- before we do, let's be goddamn sure that the craven media is put on notice that there will be zero tolerance of their bullshit he-said/she-said, both sides do it fucking nonsense.  Let's talk facts.  Let's have a reality-based, truthful talk about which national cable "News" network, day in and day out, exhorts the Jerad and Amanda Millers of the nation to elevate their own warped vision of democracy and law on a pedestal above the actual laws of the land.  Let's talk about which political movement wants to turn the streets of our communities in to their own juvenile vision of the OK Corral with their pushing of open carry laws in states across the nation - efforts which put the rights of a small minority of gun fetishists above the rights of the majority of people who just want to go to their local restaurant or take their kids to a little league baseball game without worrying whether the jackasses strutting around with and waving their killing toys are sane or not.

So yeah -- c'mon Rudy -- and you hyenas at Fox "News" -- let's have an open and frank discussion about who's rhetoric and who's actions are having the most corrosive effect on this country's culture and it's public discourse.  But The Gadfly knows damn well that Mayor horse-teeth and his clown enablers on Rupert Murdoch's sleazy payroll will due everything in their power to avoid allowing such an important discussion to occur -- and that decision is based on the very uncomplicated reality that instead of having facts and reason on their side, the only tools in their crude arsenal of debate are those of hate, fear, lies and deception.

And thus endeth The Gadfly's harangue on this sordid subject. . .

----TFG

A Nation Sells It's Soul to the Devil For The Illusion of Sopranos Style Security . . .

Sociopaths so vile that even Mel Brooks can't humanize and make funny . . .

Dick Cheney gave an unflinching defense of he CIA's post-9/11 torture program on "Meet the Press" on Sunday, dismissing criticisms of the program's forced rectal feedings, waterboarding and a death.

"It worked. It absolutely did work," said Cheney, a driving force behind the George W. Bush administration's use of harsh tactics in response to the 9/11 attacks.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/14/dick-cheney-torture_n_6322872.html


The Gadfly does not ever, ever, ever, FUCKING EVER!! - want to hear these cocksuckers crying about the brutal treatment of American military personnel who will be captured (because it is going to happen) and are being held by our enemies.

Bush, Cheney, Rice, et. al.  have ensured for the foreseeable future that America is no longer to be respected, or granted deference on the issue of POW and detainee treatment.  Think about it you US Marines and Navy Seals and Seabees.  Your government no longer has the moral high ground to protest your torturous treatment by it's enemies should you be unfortunate enough to be captured in a theater of war.

Cheney and his cabal of little Torquemadas basically told the world -- torture is ok if you really, really, really believe that you need it to protect yourselves, and more so if you really, really, really believe that you and your people are just awesome!

Whatever happened to the concept of America being the pioneering force of good, decency, fairness and lawfulness in the world??  The Gadfly knows the answer to that question --- do the rest of you? . . .



----TFG

Just Thinkin' . . . .

A simple Gadfly observation ..... it's pretty fucking amusing watching the moron pundits on Fox "News" fall all over themselves like Curly, Larry and Moe in their zeal to defend law enforcement in the wake of the Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Taymir Rice killings.

The reason it is so amusing to The Gadfly is that just a few months ago these same braying jackasses were embedding themselves, and cheerleading the cause of self-appointed rebel commandant, Field Marshal Cliven Bundy and his army of sniper-rifle toting wingnuts, of which more than a few were vowing to slaughter law enforcement people for the crime of ---- enforcing the law.

Once again -- The Gadfly wonders what damage is yet to be wrought by rewarding these fucking sociopaths with even more power in the last election.

. . . . Hey! . . . . who used up all the TP? . . . . basterts.....

Sigh . . . . . .



----TFG

Dear Santa - Please Bring This Woman a Straight Jacket for Christmas . . .

The Gadfly begs forgiveness from dear readers for the scarcity of posts recently.  The holiday season and money-making ventures have simply hogged The Gadfly's free time these past several weeks.  Be patient as we traverse the remaining days of this year and as The Gadfly gears up for a renewed commitment in the coming new year to exposing the democracy hating goose-steppers in our midst.

A lot has occurred the past few weeks and The Gadfly will get around to talking about much of it soon, but one incident that really blew The Gadfly's mind was this:

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R., Minn.) knew the White House Christmas party this week would be her last chance as a member of Congress to speak directly to President Obama. She didn’t waste the opportunity.

Despite the objections of her family members, who didn’t want to be embarrassed, Bachmann said she wanted to give some “substantive comments” to the president. She waited until pictures were taken and her family walked off the stage.

“I turned to the president and I said, something to the effect of, ‘Mr. President, you need to bomb the Iranian nuclear facilities, because if you don’t, Iran will have a nuclear weapon on your watch and the course of world history will change,’” she told the Washington Free Beacon.

“And he got this condescending smile on his face and laughed at me and said, ‘Well Michele, it’s just not that easy.’ And I said to him, ‘No, Mr. President, you’re the president, it will happen on your watch, and you’ll have to answer to the world for this.’ And that was it and then I left. Merry Christmas,” she said with a laugh.

http://freebeacon.com/politics/bachmann-to-obama-at-white-house-christmas-party-bomb-iran/


No kiddies - that is not a parody piece from The Onion.  Teabagger Caucus Queen Bee Michelle Bachmann actually approached the fucking President of the United States of America at the fucking White House Christmas party and begged him to fucking bomb another sovereign nation.

These are the psychopaths, dear America, that you handed the reigns of governing power to in this last election.  And for doing so - may whatever deity you ascribe faith to have mercy on your frighteningly bone headed souls.

Btw -- Obama laughed condescendingly at Bachmann's plea as the article notes.  Were The Gadfly in Obama's place he'd have had the Secret Service called in and had the batshit insane bitch carted off to the nearest mental hospital post haste.  People with such dangerous mental illnesses should not be allowed anywhere near the leader of our country - EVER!

But not only does The Gadfly blame the people who vote for nutjobs like Bachmann and her ilk, he also blames those Americans who were just too fucking lazy or too selfish or too apathetic to drag their oh-so special asses to the polls this past November.  The Gadfly is not enamored with the Democrats, or Obama (any more) for that matter kids, but if it means keeping loony-toon hyenas like Bachmann away from the power to legislate over The Gadfly's life, then the choice is clear, and more importantly, it's imperative to exercise that choice.

Too late now though . . . strap yourselves in, the next couple of years are going to be one hilarious fucking trip down Dumbassery Lane.




----TFG

The Comedy of Tragedy . . . . or Vice/Versa......

It is never a commendable thing to celebrate tragic death, but when it involves the gene pool of a certain bunch of gun loving fuckheads being diluted a smidgeon - a giggle or too is acceptable.

Observe:

PINELLAS PARK — A man arguing with his wife and threatening to shoot a family dog early Tuesday accidentally shot himself in the face and died, Pinellas Park police said.

Paramedics tried to treat Dennis Eugene Emery, 57, but he was declared dead at the scene.

Authorities said Emery was arguing with his wife, Francisca, in their home at 5271 87th Ave. N about 6 a.m. Emery was upset because he could not find his lighter, police said.
He picked up a revolver and threatened to shoot the dog, pulling back the hammer on the gun to emphasize his threat, police said. Later, as he tried to release the hammer, the gun fired while Emery had it pointed at his face.

Emery has had 34 contacts with Pinellas Park police since 2012, the department said. He recently was arrested three times in six days: Oct. 12 for domestic battery; Oct. 15 on charges of aggravated assault and resisting arrest; and Oct. 17 on a charge of leaving the scene of a crash. Those cases were pending at the time of his death.

State records show Emery was convicted of drunken driving in 1977; carrying a concealed weapon in 1978; and disorderly conduct and public intoxication in 1983. He was charged with domestic violence in 2013, but the case was dropped, according to records.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/police-one-killed-in-accidental-shooting-in-pinellas-park/2207841


And yet the state of Florida says this career criminal scumbag can own firearms because ......... FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDOM!!!!!!!!!!!1

And the dog?  The lucky little fella survived it seems.  The Gadfly can envision the dog's conversation with the neighbor dogs .. .. kinda went like this:

Dog:  Holy fuck dudes - the old man just blew a hole thru his face.

Neighbor dog:  What happened?

Dog:  This piece of shit was gonna kill me and his wife ... and I don't even know why I was involved - I just eat and chew my bones there - it's not like we were master/loyal pet thing ya' know?

Neighbor dog:  Were u afraid?

Dog:  Ever had a fucking cocked .38 pointed at you Skippy? - knowing the person with the gun is more mentally unstable than Amanda Bynes?

Neighbor dog:  So he accidentally shot himself huh?

Dog:  Yeah ... should have seen it ... the look on his face when the bullet went in to his skull -- it was the same look I've seen on the cat's face when I sneak up on him and bark loudly... priceless.

Neighbor dog:  So what are u going to do now?

Dog:  I'm going to fucking Disneyland!

Sigh . . . . . your fellow Americans ---- own them (or at least have the courage to mock them).



----TFG

A Story of Sociopaths and Their Enablers . . .

This is a subject that is near and dear to The Gadfly's dirty old hippie heart - namely the penchant for the American people to continuously elect selfish, vindictive assholes to public office who they goddamn well know don't give a rat's puckered ass about them and their familily's economic condition.  That penchant also encompasses the innate and utterly insane death instinct of electing and re-electing outright frauds and criminals to legislate over their lives - as Bill Maher recently pointed out on a pre-election show of his.

Paul Rosenberg does an in-depth analysis of this frightening phenomenon in Salon this past week and it really is an eye-opening read.  And while Rosenberg chooses to dig a whole helluva lot deeper in to the psychoanalytical aspect of this issue, a few direct points in his opening observation really struck a nerve with The Gadfly -- observe:

When George W. Bush became president in 2001, it marked the first time in 70 years that conservative Republicans controlled all three branches of government. By the time Bush left office, we were all reminded why. The financial crisis and resulting global economic meltdown Bush left us with were eerily reminiscent of the Great Depression, but there was also 9/11, the Iraq War and Katrina—a multifaceted record of spectacular failure so stunning that it should have disqualified conservative Republicans from holding power for at least another seven decades.  Yet, the Democrats’ political response to the many messes Bush left behind has been so spectacularly inept that they’ve not only lost both houses of Congress, they’ve also lost more state legislative seats than any time since before the Great Recession.

There are many ways one might explain this state of affairs—and certainly the rise of Wall Street Democrats and the decline of labor played crucial roles. But beyond any particular issue area, there’s also the matter of differences in how liberals and conservatives think—and how they act and organize as a result.

http://www.salon.com/2014/11/29/why_are_these_clowns_winning_secrets_of_the_right_wing_brain/


Some very simple facts pointed out there in those two paragraphs dear readers -- and indisputable at that.  Republicans did indeed control all three branches of government for 6 of Bush's 8 years in office.  And what was the result of it?  A world economy brought to it's knees by incompetence, greed & corruption, a lack of vision and a wholly deliberate attitude of just not giving a shit about those Americans who didn't have campaign donations big enough to get their attention.  Millions of good Americans losing jobs and homes and any hope of ever seeing their version of the "American Dream" ever come to fruition.  And of course - not to mention being asleep at the wheel on 9/11 and getting us involved in the Iraq and Afghanistan quagmires after wiser people warned them not to.

Sure -- the electorate did punish the GOP somewhat with the election of Obama in 2008, but they subsequently allowed the GOP to behave like the stunted intellectual growth toddlers that they are and obstruct every effort Obama made to move the country forward from the Bush and Republican fuckuppery.  And the ADD afflicted electorate has now rewarded that obstruction by giving control of the Senate and House to these sadistic psychopaths earlier this month.  American voters remind The Gadfly of the clod, dumbass, inept military recruit in basic training who is constantly getting picked on by the drill instructor - and the clod loser's mantra of begging for more pain and punishment as in "thank you sir, may I have another?!" becomes the hallmark of their pitiable existence - it is a sad drama to be witness to.

The Gadfly is by no means advocating that the current crop of spineless, nearly as ethically compromised corporate democrats are leagues better than the Republicans, but honestly folks -- when you have clowns like this on your team -- you sure as shit ought to be laughed out of the arena of serious discourse - and no - there are no equivalents of that level of batshit nuttery on the democratic side - none, nada, zilch.

All that having been said though, The Gadfly can only sit back and watch now - watch as the flying monkees invade the monkee house and inflict even more of their senseless damage on the nation over the next couple of years.  The Gadfly has mentally prepared himself for this though, so most of his job as an agitator towards the conservative movement and their horror house ideology, will be alleviated by the fact that the Teabagging wingnuts can absolutely be counted on to overstep the bounds of decency and fairness and ethical propriety by slowly hanging themselves with the slack length of rope that the American electorate has obliviously granted them.

Pass the popcorn.




----TFG

Lying Eyes Aren't Lying .... ......

Sigh . . .

GLACIER NATIONAL PARK, Mont. — What will they call this place once the glaciers are gone?

A century ago, this sweep of mountains on the Canadian border boasted some 150 ice sheets, many of them scores of feet thick, plastered across summits and tucked into rocky fissures high above parabolic valleys.

Today, perhaps 25 survive.

In 30 years, there may be none.

A warming climate is melting Glacier’s glaciers, an icy retreat that promises to change not just tourists’ vistas, but also the mountains and everything around them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/23/us/climate-change-threatens-to-strip-the-identity-of-glacier-national-park.html?_r=0


Yet try to talk to a conservative right winger about this very real situation and they'll just tell you that it's a conspiracy between greedy scientists and the liberals to take away your freedoms -- even though the stark reality of what is happening is staring them right in their stupid fucking faces.

The Gadfly has long given up the concept of being civil with these assholes on the right.  It's an utter exercise in futility.  You just simply cannot reason with morons who are so intent maintaining their moronic views that they actually celebrate their ignorance.

No more coddling their assholery - nope, not one minute more.



----TFG

Your New Overlords America --- Cherish Them . . . .

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The shitty diaper-stained legacy that these conservative assholes are going to leave behind is going to impart some harmful effects on this country's soul for a very long time.

The Gadfly does tire of pointing out this obviousness, but there are occasions when the reality (there's that word again!) of it just needs to be pounded home a little bit harder.  Observe:

A Nevada independent alternative news site sifted through thirteen years of articles by the incoming Nevada Assembly Speaker designate and found a litany of offensive and hateful views that will make your stomach churn. The former AM talk show host (no surprise there) Ira Hansen, has very disturbing views on blacks, women, Israel, RINO's, gays and most everything else that you could think off.

How insane has the GOP become since they let the Tea Party take over?

He also referred to public schools as a form of “educational slavery,” writing that “[t]he Democratic coalition would split asunder if the NAACP & co. actually promoted what black Americans truly desire — educational choice. The shrewd and calculating [black] ’leaders’ are willing to sacrifice the children of their own race to gratify their lust for power and position. The relationship of Negroes and Democrats is truly a master-slave relationship, with the benevolent master knowing what’s best for his simple minded darkies.”

Hansen registered further displeasure with the “simple minded darkies” more directly, too, noting that “[t]he lack of gratitude and the deliberate ignoring of white history in relation to eliminating slavery is a disgrace that Negro leaders should own up to.”

His thoughts on homosexuality and feminism are equally regressive. For years, he wrote, he kept a “rough tally on homosexual/heterosexual molesters as reported locally,” and found that “roughly half of all molestations involve homosexual men preying on boys,” citing as further evidence the existence of the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) and the Catholic church molestation scandals as evidence of gay male depravity.

As for women, he wrote that their proclivity for filing sexual harassment suits made them unfit to serve their country, claiming that “[t]oday, when Army men look at women in the ranks with ’longing in their eyes’ it very well may constitute ’sexual harassment.’ The truth is, women do not belong in the Army or Navy or Marine Corps, except in certain limited fields.”

I'm speechless. How can a political party elect this vile man, let alone make him the leader of the state assembly?

http://crooksandliars.com/2014/11/nevadas-new-republican-speaker-simple



The day that The Gadfly's conservative friends (yes, he has some) and detractors (yes, he has many) can point to someone in the Democratic ranks, at this level of political power, who espouses these kinds of hateful, obscene, and purposefully cruel views -- that is the day that The Gadfly will happily sit down with you and acknowledge you as a peer when it comes to the all too serious business of reality-based thinking.  But . . . . The Gadfly knows that there is nobody on the Democratic side, in a position of equal political power, who is this disgusting and mentally disturbed and fundamentally morally degenerate, and so the point is probably moot.

And make no mistake - come next year, and for the next two years, you can look forward to pieces of human shit like this guy Ira Hansen, and many others of the same degenerate mindset, spreading their bile farther and wider -- and the Teabagger's smug smiles tell you everything you need to know.




----TFG

Taliban/Christian Fundamentalists ---- Birds of a Feather . . . .

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As a disclaimer preface to the following opinion piece, The Gadfly gladly shares this wonderful piece of historical literature for which he religiously (pun intended) bases his most basic non-religious views upon:

Every national church or religion has established itself by pretending some special mission from God, communicated to certain individuals. The Jews have their Moses; the Christians their Jesus Christ, their apostles and saints; and the Turks their Mahomet, as if the way to God was not open to every man alike.

Each of those churches show certain books, which they call revelation, or the word of God. The Jews say, that their word of God was given by God to Moses, face to face; the Christians say, that their word of God came by divine inspiration: and the Turks say, that their word of God (the Koran) was brought by an angel from Heaven. Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all.

'Age of Reason' ~~~ Thomas Paine, 1794

And the American conservative's dogged march to turning this nation into a religious theocracy, not entirely unlike orcs storming the fortress in Lord of The Rings, or the Taliban bullying the peoples of their country into dogmatic submission, continues apace . . .

Christian conservatives win, children lose: Texas textbooks will teach public school students that the Founding Fathers based the Constitution on the Bible, and the American system of democracy was inspired by Moses.

On Friday the Republican-controlled Texas State Board of Education voted along party lines 10-5 to approve the biased and inaccurate textbooks. The vote signals a victory for Christian conservatives in Texas, and a disappointing defeat for historical accuracy and the education of innocent children.

The textbooks were written to align with instructional standards that the Board of Education approved back in 2010 with the explicit intention of forcing social studies teaching to adhere to a conservative Christian agenda. The standards require teachers to emphasize America’s so called “Christian heritage.”

In essence, Christian conservatives in Texas have successfully forced a false historical narrative into public school textbooks that portray Moses as an influence on the Constitution and the Old Testament as the root of democracy.

Critics called the whole process into question after publishers posted a number of last-minute changes to the textbooks yesterday, leaving board members and observers without time to figure out exactly what was in the approved texts.

According to reports, scholars did not have an opportunity to review and comment on the numerous changes publishers have submitted since the last public hearing. Some of those changes appeared to have been negotiated with state board members behind closed doors.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2014/11/texas-approves-textbooks-with-moses-as-founding-father/


This proves conclusively that the conservative zeal to dumb down an already frightfully dumbed down populace has not abated in the least.  And the fact that they have turned their weaponry of celebrated ignorance on to children truly signifies a worrisome turn in their efforts to remake America in to their own bastardized (fundamentalist Christian) version of Saudi Arabia, should be cause for sane, reality-based Americans to take notice and start finding common ground with other sane Americans, across the religious and political spectrums, to put a stop to this dangerous idiocy.

These are publicly funded schools - and what these morons in Texas are doing is thumbing their collective moron noses at the concept of church/state separation and the constitutional mandate that prohibits government from making any law respecting an establishment of religion, just as equally as it prohibits the government from impeding the free exercise of religion.

And before some conservative knucklehead starts yammering about the evil federal government impeding the state of Texas' will to indoctrinate their children in the superstition of it's choice, let's keep in mind the FACT that there are plenty of private educational institutions and religious institutions where pious parents can send their offspring to be brainwashed in the religion of their choice to their heart's content.  However in the public school arena, there are all manner of tax-paying, religious and non-religious belief families who have their children in the public school system. Please explain to The Gadfly what is so fair about having this captive audience of diverse religious or non-religious view children who are offered no choice other than to be taught the fundamentalist Christian version of history?  Sounds just like something The Taliban would do doesn't it?  Goddamn right it does.

It's your choice America -- you can allow these assholes to hijack your democracy and your religious freedom/freedom from religion, etc., or you can stand up and speak your mind.  The Gadfly is doing his part - maybe the rest of y'all could step up and lend a hand huh? . . . .




----TFG

Yahweh's Magic Hands . . .

Huh? . . .

NOVEMBER 21, 2014, 11:45 AM EST

Dr. Ben Carson has God on his side. Or, at least, the Almighty's fingers.

In an interview on Thursday with Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network, Carson said he felt the hand of the Lord pushing him toward the White House.

"Has He grabbed you by the collar yet?" host David Brody asked.

"I feel fingers," Carson said. "But, um, you know... It’s mostly me."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ben-carson-fingers-god-president


It pleases The Gadfly none the much to rain on ol' Doc Carson's self-aggrandizement parade, but The Gadfly is pretty damn certain that the only fingers stroking Doc Carson's inner thigh as he dreamily contemplates his glorious reign on the throne of Pennsylvania Avenue are the same one's attached to his own well manicured hand.

Speaking of the almighty's celestial fingers . . .

[ click to enlarge ]

Hehe....

Oh -- and let us also make mention that this is the same Pat Robertson that Doc Carson is speaking with who in 1998 predicted that God was going to destroy central Florida with all manner of natural and unnatural disasters because the city of Orlando and Disney World decided it was ok to have a Gay Pride event at Disney World that year. Apparently God didn't get Robertson's voicemail message though, as instead of Orlando and Disney world being smote, Hurricane Bonnie tore the shit out of Virginia Beach, Virgina, Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network headquarters, a couple of months later.

Anyhow -- just another inkling of the right wing, conservative dumbassery that America is going to be forced to deal with for the next two years and the closer to the 2016 Presidential election we get.



----TFG

The 'Messican' Extermination of White, American Exceptionalism . . .

Good lord these right wing asshats are such big fucking drama queens . . . and not so very bright ones at that:

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a leader in the anti-immigrant movement, said during his Sunday radio program that it’s possible that a Hispanic majority in the U.S. could conduct an “ethnic cleansing.”

Kobach made his remarks in response to a caller who asked, “What happens, if you know your history, when one culture or one race or one religion overwhelms another culture or race?”

Claiming that immigrant rights groups are “calling for the return of the Spanish territory, which could be almost half of the United States,” the caller warned, “When one race or culture overwhelms another culture, they run them out or they kill them. And it’s a bigger issue than just being Democrats. And they know in numbers, once the numbers are so bad, they can pretty much do whatever they want to do.”

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/kobach-ethnic-cleansing-possible-if-hispanics-become-us-majority

http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article4047969.html



Yeah -- The Gadfly can see it now -- Juan, Jorge and Guadalupe and their plenitude of brown-skinned muchachitos are deviously plotting the ethnic takeover of America with the intentions of "cleansing" all of the virtuous, middle-aged, Fox "News" viewing, white Republican males from existence.

Honestly America --- these are the fucking dimwits you trust to govern over you with any measurable level of probity and clear judgment?  If the answer to that is 'yes' - then you truly are deserving of the most grossly incompetent and universally disrespected government for which Kris Kobach and the other conservatives of his ilk are rabidly determined to bestow upon you.



----TFG

The Looming Reign of The Flying Monkey Brigades . . . .

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Well - it's been a couple of weeks since the American electorate handed over the keys to the governing asylum to the sociopaths and the calumniators on the conservative right.

The Gadfly would be wholly remiss in his duties as - well, a gadfly - if he didn't take a few moments of his precious free time to remind his dear readers what noxious hell awaits this country once these supreme ass-clowns ascend to power.

Let's start with this bit of long ago finished (finished except in the minds of Fox "News" and their lizard-brain viewers) bit of business - The inimitable Charlie Pierce over at Esquire has the honors:

We interrupt your regularly scheduled weekend with this special report.
The largely mythical beast known as Benghazi, Benghazi!, BENGHAZI! is no more. It has ceased to be. It's expired and gone to meet its maker. This is a late scandal, It's a stiff. Bereft of life, it rests in peace. If they hadn't nailed it to our eyeballs, it'd be pushing up the daisies. Its metabolic processes have ceased. It's off the twig. It's kicked the bucket, rung down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibule.

This is an ex-scandal.

A two-year investigation by the Republican-controlled House Intelligence Committee has found that the CIA and the military acted properly in responding to the 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, and asserted no wrongdoing by Obama administration appointees. Debunking a series of persistent allegations hinting at dark conspiracies, the investigation of the politically charged incident determined that there was no intelligence failure, no delay in sending a CIA rescue team, no missed opportunity for a military rescue, and no evidence the CIA was covertly shipping arms from Libya to Syria.

This is a classic Washington news dump -- late on a Friday night, the week before Thanksgiving, on a day on which the Congress decided to show the president what a tyrant he is by going on vacation for three weeks. Do they think that the blog ever sleeps? Do they? Huh? Fie on you, sirs.

The House Intelligence Committee report was released with little fanfare on the Friday before Thanksgiving week. Many of its findings echo those of six previous investigations by various congressional committees and a State Department panel. The eighth Benghazi investigation is being carried out by a House Select Committee appointed in May.

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/The_Alleged_End_Of_Benghazi


That's right dear readers - despite this 7th, GOP controlled investigation which states unequivocally that "the CIA and the military acted properly" in their response to the Benghazi attack, there is going to be yet an 8th investigation come May, after the screeching monkeys take control of the congressional and senate monkey houses.  Now - some of you more observant readers may be asking yourself why there would be yet an 8th investigation next May based on the FACT that 7 investigations to date, including investigations owned wholly by the GOP themselves, have declared nothing improper took place?  The Gadfly has a two word answer to that question -- Hillary Clinton.  Yup - the Benghazi!Benghazi!!Benghazi!!! asshattery is still a very effective political smear tool for the conservanuts for which they will gleefully utilize to rile up their idiot base for the 2016 Presidential election.  And yes - it really is as simple and as cynical as that.

Next up - immigration reform!  EEK!!

President Obama's long overdue executive action offers deportation protection to millions of immigrant parents and spouses of U.S. citizens and permanent residents.  It is not, as those on the right are loudly and dishonestly claiming, a blanket, irreversible "amnesty" program.  Amnesty is the code word, kind of like "entitlements" is a code word for minorities receiving government handouts.  Fox's Megyn Kelly let it slip in conversation on her show the other day that the conservatives are consciously using the "amnesty" word to rile up the bigoted lizard brains in their base which serves their asshole purposes, but really does nothing but cheapen the discourse on the subject.  As it is, Obama's action pretty much is the equivalent of a big "FUCK YOU" to John Boehner and Mitch McConnell who know very well that Latinos are the fastest growing demographic in the country and the more that the conservatives treat Latinos like sub-human shit, the quicker that the portending demise of the conservative movement, and by proxy, the Republican party, punches the clock.  And boy -- let's hope that they do try to impeach Obama over this action, which by the way, is not an unprecedented one - for both Reagan and Bush used their executive powers to act unilaterally on immigration issues.  An impeachment attempt would pretty much ensure the White House remains in Democratic control for the foreseeable future, a future where those aforementioned demographics it must be noted, do not favor a party that is still dragging it's knuckles in the dark ages on most of the important domestic and international issues of the day.  Frankly - if you ask The Gadfly what all of this conservative braying over the immigration issue boils down to, and what really has the wingnuts frothing at the brain, is the prospect of a dirty Kenyan, Muslim, terrorist appeaser giving other dark-skinned humans a chance at getting a small slice, or even a few measly crumbs, of "their" American dream pie.

Last on The Gadfly's list is this sad commentary on the subject of American "exceptionalism":

November 19, 2014 

Unequal treatment before the law has become a hot topic in a country reeling from cases like those of Troy Davis and Michael Brown. In Georgia, yet another case has arisen of an innocent young minority man being shot to death with little punishment for his killer.

In January 2013, 22-year-old Georgia Tech student Rodrigo Diaz, alongside his girlfriend and two other friends, pulled into a driveway in Gwinett County, Georgia, hoping to pick up a friend for skating. It turned out to be the wrong driveway. The homeowner, Phillip Sailors, emerged from the home and fired a warning shot with his .22 pistol. As Diaz began to drive away, Sailors fired again, striking Diaz in the head and killing him.

Despite these circumstances, police arrested Diaz's girlfriend and their two friends and held them overnight. This week, Sailors pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, and will have one year of probation and be charged a $500 fine.

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/georgia-man-shoots-and-kills-latino-22-year-old-pulling-wrong-driveway-gets-500?akid=12487.1084699.L5CmBx&rd=1&src=newsletter1027376&t=7


If someone can coherently explain to The Gadfly what is so "exceptional" about a nation whose laws are so morally decrepit and cowardly, that a 22 year old college student, in the prime of his young life, gets a bullet to the head for the crime of inadvertently pulling in to the wrong gun-toting wingnut's driveway and his killer only has to pay a $500 fine and be on probation for a year, The Gadfly is all fucking ears.  But this is the kind of society that the NRA and the conservatives envision for America folks -- a nation ruled by fear, by mistrust, by hate, and by cruelty and selfishness and the celebration of ignorance and stupidity.  It is the kind of nation for which most of the Republican winners in this most recent election have a raging hard on for.  Suffice to say -- it is not the kind of nation that The Gadfly wishes to see his children and grandchildren having to live in -- and so The Gadfly will continue to open his dirty fucking liberal hippie piehole and talk about this shit -- if for no other goddamn reason that somebody has to do it.




----TFG

Killing Them Bluntly With Your Song . . . Killing Them Bluntly.......

A-Fucking-men for Bruce..... a death punch to the heart of the phonies ......







yeah -- that was from a few years ago .. bruce and john ... sigh ....


Gadfly is here  --- first conservative asshole that want's to put it together -- let's go ..... pffffffttt


This is the posterboy example of how low in original thought, intellectual discourse and just goddam outright fucking unreality, that this country's mainstream press and media has fallen.
\
They suck.  Your fucking national meda sucks!!

At the Concert for Valor Tuesday night on the Mall in Washington, D.C., Bruce Springsteen caught social media heat for a song choice: Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son,” which he performed with Zac Brown and Dave Grohl during Brown’s set.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/11/12/some-people-didnt-appreciate-bruce-springsteens-anti-war-songs-at-concert-for-valor/



The Washington Fucking Post publishing a lazy, one-sided whining story about Bruce Springsteen singing Creedence Clearwater Revival's classic "Fortunate Son" at a concert for vets.

Are these fucking people real?

Dear readers --- Ladies & Gentlemen ---  The Gadfly rests his case - your media is fucking gutless and ethically suspect.


Distrust your press.  Distrust your cable news.  Distrust ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN.

That's why they want to kill net neutrality ... it digs in to their manufactured world view of bullshit ......

Wake up kids .....




----TFG

Ted "Fucking" Cruz for President!! Why Not?? . . .

Not that The Gadfly thinks the Twinkie swilling masses of this republic will fucking listen, but Maher is right, as has The Gadfly stated many a time over the years --- you get the fucking government of misfits and losers that you elect.






Hey millenials -- take some time off from your fucking self-indulgent activities and do something for your country huh???




----TFG

A Small, Albeit Important Victory Against The Oligarchs . . .

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The wheels of justice grind slowly, and finely, they say . . .

Here's hoping those wheels grind this piece of human shit into a pile of blood oozing hamburger meat.

. . . .

Don Blankenship, the longtime chief executive officer of Massey Energy, was indicted Thursday on charges that he orchestrated the routine violation of key federal mine safety rules at the company’s Upper Big Branch Mine prior to an April 2010 explosion that killed 29 miners.

A federal grand jury in Charleston charged Blankenship with conspiring to cause willful violations of ventilation requirements and coal-dust control rules — meant to prevent deadly mine blasts —during a 15-month period prior to the worst coal-mining disaster in a generation.

The four-count indictment, filed in U.S. District Court, also alleges that Blankenship led a conspiracy to cover up mine safety violations and hinder federal enforcement efforts by providing advance warning of government inspections.

“Blankenship knew that UBB was committing hundreds of safety-law violations every year and that he had the ability to prevent most of the violations that UBB was committing,” the indictment states. “Yet he fostered and participated in an understanding that perpetuated UBB’s practice of routine safety violations, in order to produce more coal, avoid the costs of following safety laws, and make more money.”

http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20141113/GZ01/141119629/1104



The Gadfly has seen the picture of this asshole Don Blankenship wearing his American flag themed shirts and pants and hat, pontificating in public about his and his scum company's patriotism and denigrating our president and pretending that his style of business stewardship is "the American way," and all of it just makes The Gadfly sick to his fucking stomach.

This man's greed is responsible for 29 men's deaths.  Families devastated.  Children with lost fathers.

Time to double up on those electric chairs says The Gadfly.  Jaime Dimon of JP Chase could use a death chamber tag-team partner The Gadfly do think.



----TFG

Crime Certainly Does Pay For Some Americans . . . .

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Here's the story that your corporate whore national media is trying very hard to avoid having to talk about:

Fleischmann is the central witness in one of the biggest cases of white-collar crime in American history, possessing secrets that JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon late last year paid $9 billion (not $13 billion as regularly reported – more on that later) to keep the public from hearing.

Back in 2006, as a deal manager at the gigantic bank, Fleischmann first witnessed, then tried to stop, what she describes as "massive criminal securities fraud" in the bank's mortgage operations.

Thanks to a confidentiality agreement, she's kept her mouth shut since then. "My closest family and friends don't know what I've been living with," she says. "Even my brother will only find out for the first time when he sees this interview."

Six years after the crisis that cratered the global economy, it's not exactly news that the country's biggest banks stole on a grand scale. That's why the more important part of Fleischmann's story is in the pains Chase and the Justice Department took to silence her.

She was blocked at every turn: by asleep-on-the-job regulators like the Securities and Exchange Commission, by a court system that allowed Chase to use its billions to bury her evidence, and, finally, by officials like outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder, the chief architect of the crazily elaborate government policy of surrender, secrecy and cover-up. "Every time I had a chance to talk, something always got in the way," Fleischmann says.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-9-billion-witness-20141106



This is not a Republican vs. Democrat issue.  This is a Dick and Jane WorkingAmerican issue.  Because every hard-working, play by the rules American who is living their life, doing the right thing by society and the law, has been robbed -- in broad fucking daylight by these vampire squid bloodsuckers on Wall Street.

The $9 billion in fines is petty cash to these scumbags.  In a just world, they all would be sitting on death row, and the politicians who benefited from their ill-gotten gains would be the guys designated to push the "PWR ON" button on the electric chairs when it comes time for their campaign benefactors to fry after a jury of their "peers" convicts them for treason against the state.

That's just The Gadfly's dirty fucking, liberal hippie view, and The Gadfly doesn't give a rat's fucking sphincter if you, dear readers, like it or not.

Go read the whole Rolling Stone story and then look your children in the eye and delude yourself in to believing that you truly care about their futures.




----TFG

And The Cycle of National Masochism Continues to Churn . . .

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. . . . !Yawn! . . . . is pretty much The Gadfly's overall reaction to the midterm elections outcome.  The Gadfly has a few observations and a couple of predictions to share about this election.

First off -- the Democrats got what they deserved.  Any political party that does not have the courage to stand up for it's leaders, it's policies and it's convictions, and the people they purportedly represent, should be viewed as the cowards that they are, and their commitment to govern as well as their commitment to be an alternative vision to the right wing extremists, should rightly be called in to question.  Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have overstayed their time in American politics.  It is a much more cut-throat and meaner atmosphere out there in the world of politics and while their style of old school, political cordiality plays well to the traditionalists in the party, it doesn't win elections - in fact - The Gadfly would postulate that it loses elections these days as it portrays Democrats, wrongly or rightly, as weak-kneed and meek and therefore incapable of standing their ground and fighting for the people they are supposed to be representing.

Secondly -- fuck the media in this country.  When you have a media whose mission and principles are so fundamentally compromised that they just outright refuse to call winning candidates like Iowa's Joni Ernst and a slew of Tea Party basket cases like Colorado's Gordon Klingenschmitt as anything but batshit insane cranks, then that media has lost it's usefulness to the Republic and the only thing that can save it is to see it ignored and marginalized by the masses to the point that it's influence over the political process is obliterated and they are reduced to being nothing more than universally disdained, disgruntled hecklers sniping from the sidelines.

Lastly - President Obama has his own fair share of blame.  If he hadn't learned by now that the wingnuts in the Republican caucus would throw their own mothers off of a moving train in order to stop any policies that Obama put forth or supported, even if it did better the lives of their constituents, then Obama is either naive or foolish - of which both are fatal character flaws to be carrying in to battle against fanatical zealots like the Teabaggers.

As far as predictions go -- you can pretty much bet your life savings that Mitch McConnell and John Boehner will not be able to control the dark fantasies of the lunatics in their caucus and that those lunatics will eventually overreach and behave like the knuckle-dragging boors that they are, and in the process so alienate a wide swath of the American populace that Hillary Clinton will utterly emasculate them in 2016 while dragging the limp-wristed Dems on the tails of her petticoat back in to power.

You can also wager your jockey shorts that Obama will engage in some executive actions, just as Presidents before him have, and that the Tea Party response will be an attempt to impeach him.  Which, just as the last attempt at wingnut impeachment went, will only send Obama out of office with higher approval ratings (see Clinton, William Jefferson) than any Republican president could ever wet dream hope of achieving (see Bush, George W.).   And that assholery will also result in the lame-ass Demopublicans retaking control of all three branches of government in 2016.

It is truly a decrepit state of affairs in American politics, but it is what it is and we the people shoulder a measurable share of our own blame for the situation that our country is in by virtue of our apathy and defeatism toward the concept of putting tribalism before competence and reality.  Putting it bluntly - we get the giant, squishy, maggot-infested turd of government that we elect - and we are wholly deserving of it.



----TFG

Your Sewage Soaked Democracy . . .

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Gee --- whoever could have fucking predicted? . . .

A stealthy coterie of difficult-to-trace outside groups is slipping tens of millions of dollars of attacks ads and negative automated telephone calls into the final days of the midterm campaign, helping fuel an unprecedented surge of last-minute spending on Senate races.

Much of the advertising is being timed to ensure that no voter will know who is paying for it until after the election on Tuesday. Some of the groups are “super PACs” that did not exist before Labor Day but have since spent heavily on political advertising, adding to the volatility of close Senate and House races. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/03/us/politics/a-flood-of-late-spending-on-midterm-elections-from-murky-sources.html?_r=0


Thank you U.S. Supreme Court conservative justices for selling American Democracy down the conservative toilet of dirty corporate and industrialist, election buying money.

Sure -- this "dark" money benefits both parties.  But mark The Gadfly's words dear readers - once the tally is finished, it will be clear which party has benefited exponentially more by the sleaziest and most corrupt Supreme Court decision in the history of this now "officially" sanctioned oligarchy.

Once again, The Gadfly will call out the apathy of Americans -- for allowing their country to be hijacked buy a bunch of con artists, grifters and uber embezzlers.

Good job people.




----TFG

To Think Your Voice and Vote Mean Nothing is Capitulation to Democracy's Vandals . . . .

This is an issue near and dear to The Gadfly's dirty old fucking hippie heart.

Watch as Bill Maher deservedly tears the Democrats a new asshole while asking them when it is that they will finally grow a spine and stand up for their policies and their leaders in the same manner that the conservanuts do . . .






Maher ticks off just a few of Obama's accomplishments - and yes wing nuts - these FACTS are backed up by evidence, and not the kind you clowns pull out of the Rush Limbaugh's fat puckered sphincter, but the kind that people whose minds and lives are rooted in the reality-based world that most of us reside in put faith in.

63 consecutive months of national economic expansion.
A near depression caused by conservative economic policies averted.
The national deficit reduced by 66%.
A comprehensive health care law, that while flawed, is working and reducing costs.
Gender parity on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Osama Bin-Laden's corpse is at the bottom of the sea in a cement coffin.
The stock market is at record high levels.
The unemployment rate has been cut nearly in half.

Listen -- there are several issues which The Gadfly is dead set against Obama on and some where The Gadfly feels Obama has failed miserably at.  But if given the choice, once again, to choose between the train wreck of McCain/Palin or the grifters Romney/Ryan, The Gadfly would not waver one second in choosing the man better suited to the job - and a man who has proven himself infinitely wiser and more sane.

These corporate boot-licking, gutless Democrats who are running away from the above listed accomplishments --- better they lose.  They're not much better than their GOP counterparts, and in fact, it probably could be argued successfully that they are dead weight on the party and brand.

So anyhow -- get your apathetic asses off your sofas on Tuesday dear readers and prove the bought and paid for talking muppets on cable news and the spineless Democrats wrong about the GOP and the teabaggers getting ready to take over the Senate.  Prove them wrong and shut their braying and mewling mouths.

It really is up to you all now.



----TFG