Voter Fraud Finally Proven!! . . . .

If you ask The Gadfly, the predominance of fraud and abuse taking place in our nation's electoral system emanates from the "news" rooms of Fox "News" and other conservative media outlets.

Watch as Rachel Maddow calls bullshit on Fox "News" and their deceptive "reporting" on the issue of vote fraud:






No retraction yet from the misinformers at Fox.  But that's to be expected - they're only adhering to their mentor Goebbel's advice:

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

-- Joseph Goebbels

The Gadfly doesn't pick on Fox while promoting CNN or MSNBC or ABC, CBS or NBC.

The Gadfly distrusts them all to some extent.

But Fox "News" is in a category and a realm all itself.  It is a blatantly political propaganda operation masquerading as a "news" organization.  And everyone has allowed them to get away with it.

The Gadfly does not begrudge Rupert Murdoch and conservatives the right to have a cable television channel to promote their policies and political agendas.  Just don't fucking call it "News."

Simple as that.



----TFG

When Reality is The Concept You Just Pulled Out of Your Ass . . .

[ click to enlarge ]

And speaking of conservatives being frighteningly out of touch with reality:

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) says Ron Klain is "off to a bad start" in his new role as the president's Ebola response coordinator, and that the U.S. Surgeon General should be the one leading the effort. But what Chaffetz doesn't seem to realize is that there hasn't been a surgeon general for more than a year.

“Why not have the surgeon general head this up?" Chaffetz asked in a Wednesday appearance on Fox News. "I think that’s a very legitimate question. At least you have somebody who has a medical background whose been confirmed by the United States Senate.”

“It begs the question, what does the surgeon general do?" he added. "Why aren’t we empowering that person?”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/23/jason-chaffetz-surgeon-general_n_6036544.html?utm_hp_ref=tw



So --- one of the leading voices of the tea party caucus in Congress runs to the media crying about Obama's selection of this ridiculous, irrational fear inspired post, which shall heretofore and forever be known as "Ebola Czar," complaining that the job should be headed up by the U.S. Surgeon General.

The punchline of this sad joke of course is that there presently is no U.S. Surgeon General, for the sole reason that the distinguished medical professional, Dr. Vivek Murthy, whom Obama nominated for the position over a year ago has had his nomination stalled by Jason Chaffetz and his teabagging caucus because the good doctor dared to send out a single tweet some time back stating his view that guns and gun violence are a public health issue - a view by the way - which is wholly within the bounds of accepted reality such as that practiced by people who live their lives in a reality-based world.

Dr. Murthy's tweet apparently upset the delicate sensibilities -- scratch that, these people have no sensibilities -- upset the delicate torpidity of the NRA goons and some of their neanderthal foot soldiers and so they have worked diligently with conservative Republicans to deny Dr. Murthy's ascension to this all-important public health position.  All of which has The Gadfly wondering what all of the good that there is which might be realized should the GOP ever decide to put forth the same efforts to helping working families, small business owners and other powerless Americans deal with their every day life issues, as they do in ratfucking everything Obama does and proposes.  One can dream . . . . .

Nonetheless, it's all the more evidence, piled on the already existing heap of evidence, that these modern day conservatives care much, much more about their tribal ideology and politics than they do about what is best for the country as a whole.  And if these are the non-thinking, uncaring assholes who you want controlling the levers of power in America, be apathetic and don't vote come November.



----TFG

Ronaldistan . . .

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And yet it's we dirty fucking liberal hippies who are what ails American unity . . . . sigh . . .

A former aide to President Ronald Reagan is calling for southern states to secede from the union and form a new conservative nation called "Reagan" where citizens wouldn't be forced to compromise on "traditional values" like marriage.

Right Wing Watch on Wednesday flagged conservative author Douglas MacKinnon's interview with evangelical radio host Janet Mefferd, in which he hocked his new book, "The Secessionist States of America: The Blueprint for Creating a Traditional Values County … Now." Cautioning that all his secession talk was purely "academic," MacKinnon suggested that South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida break away from the United States and form a new republic named "Reagan."

"You have to remember that all 11 states from the South, including ultimately Texas, seceded legally," MacKinnon told Mefferd. "They left the union peacefully, they left the union legally, and then President Lincoln … part of the problem there was that the North realized very quickly that it could not survive economically without the power of the South."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/reagan-aide-calls-for-southern-secession

Honestly dear readers, how is it that you can rationally deal with people that are this delusional and bereft of any sense of historical, much less contemporary reality?

Never mind the asshattery of naming a new nation after red-ink Reagan - that's just the icing on their cake of idiocy.

The south "seceded legally?"  The Gadfly supposes that if by "legally," you mean unilaterally, and without warning, commencing an attack on your own national government and fellow citizens as a precursor to waging a war to preserve the immoral act of institutional human bondage.

And even more hilariously, "they left the union peacefully," -- just wow!  When one's definition of the word peaceful translates to 365,000 corpses of your fellow citizens littering battlefields all over your country in a 4 year civil war, that is about as insanely delusional as one can get.

Make no mistake as well - that when these conservative secessionists talk about "traditional values," they truly are referring to their very own tradition of choosing their extremist tribal values over the best interests of the nation on whole.

Oh - and btw - can we make one thing unquestioningly clear right here and now?  Please take note of who it is in this country that is incessantly calling for the dissolution of our United States of America for the sole reason that they cannot convince a majority of voters to support their ideological and political ambitions.  Got news for you dear readers, the people pining to break up and destroy our union -- it ain't the flower power people.

The sooner more folks acknowledge that bit of reality, the sooner we can get on with the business of seriously addressing this nation's major issues at home and abroad and moving America forward in to the 21st century.

----TFG

Something to Whet Your Gadfly Appetite . . .

A blast from the past to tide ye' dear readers over until The Gadfly's downtime this weekend . . . wherein The Gadfly has many things to share and review with y'all......







----TFG

The Well-Intentioned Conversation With the Brick Wall Ends Here . . . .

It truly has become literally impossible for The Gadfly to find anything resembling common intellectual or any other form of ground between himself and today's modern, right-wing conservatives.

And it has very much to do with shit like this:

Ingraham: The Left Believes Americans Should Die From Ebola To Repay Our Debt To Africa

From the October 17 edition of Courtside Entertainment Group's The Laura Ingraham Show:

http://mediamatters.org/video/2014/10/17/ingraham-the-left-believes-americans-should-die/201207



The Gadfly is all for a robust debate about policies that can best move the country forward and address the issues and crisis' that affect all American's lives, but when you have the leading voices on one side of the debate throwing verbal molotov cocktails like this -- incessantly -- then there is no longer a debate.  It has devolved into a monologue - sane and rational people talking among themselves basically, while the lunatics screech and hurl epithets at them from the sidelines.

The Gadfly is tired of it - and not only no longer feels obligated to try and compromise with these cretins, he is not going to find much cause to talk civilly about them whatsoever any more.



-----TFG

Gadfly Time is 47 Seconds Later Than Your Time ........

shiiiiiiiit ... time for some music in The Gadfly's crib .....





and no ... no bullshit music ... the real mccoy ...



,,, and all it takes to deal with the fucking wingnuts and the nutball Rebublicowards is just a little ............................







----TFG

The Only Thing We Have to Fear, Is Fox "News" Itself . . . . . . . . .

Salutations dear readers.


Welcome back to The Gadfly's crib.

The Gadfly is going to be short on posts this weekend.

But let's get one fucking thing clear.

The American media, fanned by right wing morons in the U.S. House of Representatives and their primate handlers on Fox "News", are fanning the flames of ignorance and stupidity and fear with Americans with their Ebola hysteria.  Fuck them.

The Colbert Report
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----TFG

And Their Response Will Be -- More Tax Cuts for the Wealthy!! ..... And the Idiocy Compounds Itself...

Now that Ebola is ravaging American cities (yes, The Gadfly is exaggerating, if only to appease the liars on the right), rending our society a tattered wreck of no use to anyone, let's reflect .......  and . . . let's make no bones about it as to where the blame can be assigned as to America's readiness to deal with such a crisis:


The Republican fetish with starving government has helped land West Africa in an Ebola crisis. The director of the National Institutes of Health made that clear when he told Huffington Post that steep budget cuts by Congress has set back the institute's work on both prevention and treatment for the disease and that if it hadn't been for a decade's worth of cuts, "we probably would have had a vaccine in time for this that would've gone through clinical trials and would have been ready."

It's not just the NIH that's suffered, and it's not just in Africa where the cuts are harming people. The Center for Disease Control's emergency preparedness budget has been nearly cut in half in just the past seven years. That means preparation at home. That means that local health departments in this country don't have the funding—or the staff—they need to do the necessary preparation and training to deal with any epidemic. Judy Stone, MD is an infectious disease specialist, details the cuts at Scientific American.

The CDC’s discretionary funding was cut by $585 million during [2010-14]. Shockingly, annual funding for the CDC’s public health preparedness and response efforts were $1 billion lower for 2013 fiscal year than for 2002. These funding decreases have resulted in more than 45,700 job losses at state and local health departments since 2008. Again, it is not just the Ebola that is a looming threat. We need to worry about vaccine-preventable but neglected infections like influenza, measles, and whooping cough; the serious emerging viral infections in the US like Enterovirus-D68, chikungunya and dengue, as well as overseas MERS and bird flus, and natural disasters.

Just let that sink in a bit. $1 billion less for infectious disease control in 2013 than in 2002. The problems in the Texas hospital that led to one of the nursing staff contracting the disease could potentially have been prevented if the local public health infrastructure had the funding and the staff it needs to deal with a serious health public health threat. Meanwhile, Republicans will continue to screech that it's all Obama's fault and will do everything they can to terrify Americans about the (highly unlikely) Ebola epidemic at home.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/13/1336299/-Republican-budget-cutting-nearly-halved-CDC-s-emergency-preparedness-since-2006




They want to drown your government, and by proxy, your society in a bathtub.  Looks like their plans are working out they way they want them to.

And the stupefied populace looks on in dumbed-down bewilderment . . . .

Thank you Fox "News" for nurturing a nation of morons.



----TFG

Soshulizm .....Ain't it a Gas? . . . .

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Gee -- what a shocker .... a long oppressed populace puts a President back in to power who actually kept his promises to help the working poor of his nation by telling the oligarchs to go fuck themselves when they kept asking for more and more for themselves ... Would America be so lucky ......

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Evo Morales easily won an unprecedented third term as Bolivia's president Sunday on the strength of the economic and political stability the coca growers' union leader has brought to the South American country.

Morales, a native Aymara from Bolivia's poor, wind-swept Andean plateau, received 60 percent of the vote against 25 percent for cement magnate Samuel Doria Medina, the top vote-getter among four challengers, according to a quick count of 97 percent of the voting stations by the Ipsos firm for ATB television.

While known internationally for his anti-imperialist and socialist rhetoric, the 55-year-old coca growers' union leader is widely popular at home for a pragmatic economic stewardship that spread Bolivia's natural gas and mineral wealth among the masses.

A boom in commodities prices increased export revenues nine-fold and the country has accumulated $15.5 billion in international reserves. Economic growth has averaged 5 percent annually, well above the regional average. A half a million people have put poverty behind them since Bolivia's first indigenous president first took office in 2006.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/12/bolivia-president-morales-election_n_5974436.html



Morales isn't the Fidel Castro communist that your oligarch owned media would like you to believe.  What he has done basically is evened the playing field, just a wee bit, and just enough to make the elitist pricks scream like the arrogant and self-entitled fucking weasels that they are.

He's ok in The Gadfly's opinion.  Obama could learn a thing or two from the man.




----TFG

Hey! We All Gots To Make Da' Money . . . Right? . . .

Here's the lowdown on The Gadfly and his shitty little blog dear readers.

The Gadfly actually does have a pretty normal, generic, subterranean American working life outside the pages of this venue.

Fortunately, The Gadfly, in addition to his personal business work, has also latched onto another modest opportunity to help him put some dough away for him and Mrs. Gadfly in their retirement (providing the GOP doesn't destroy SS).  But to get to the point -- The Gadfly is going to maintain this blog until the day he fucking croaks, or the day ISIS beheads him or the day the Tea Party controls all three branches of American government -- in which case, The Gadfly would gladly behead himself.

Nonetheless -- because of the busy life The Gadfly leads, just get used to expecting spurts of posting activity, usually on the weekends, occasionally during the week if The Gadfly gets a wild hair up his fat ass .... for the forseeable future anyway ....

That's all.



----TFG

...for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap...

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When will we have the discussion on accountability?  After we have the one on who was responsible for getting us involved in Iraq and Afghanistan??

We're fucked.

BETHESDA, Md. -- As the federal government frantically works to combat the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, and as it responds to a second diagnosis of the disease at home, one of the country's top health officials says a vaccine likely would have already been discovered were it not for budget cuts.

Dr. Francis Collins, the head of the National Institutes of Health, said that a decade of stagnant spending has "slowed down" research on all items, including vaccinations for infectious diseases. As a result, he said, the international community has been left playing catch-up on a potentially avoidable humanitarian catastrophe.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/12/ebola-vaccine_n_5974148.html



That's right.  And who are the people responsible for those budget cuts?  Could they possibly be the same people who cut the security budget of overseas embassies prior to the Benghazi attack?

Could they possibly be the same people who at every turn are attempting to cut the budgets of the government regulatory agencies responsible for ensuring our food is safe, our water and air clean, our natural resources protected?

Could they possibly be the same people who have publicly stated that their goal is to drown the U.S. government in a bath tub and effectively destroy it's ability to function on behalf of it's people?

Does it surprise anyone that Ebola has made it's debut in the United States in the state that is one of the most anti-regulatory, anti-government, anti-science states in the country -- Texas?  Fucking karma shit is a bitch huh Texas?

The Gadfly is going to ask this question one more time of you all dear readers -- who do you trust more with yours and your children's future -- people who's minds, ideas and vision are working diligently in the reality-based world that confronts us, or the neanderthals who are frantically flipping thru the pages of their religious scriptures for insight on how to handle the critical issues and crisis's that are facing us all?



----TFG

Mind Numbing Stupidity Du Jour . . . .

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Sigh . . . .

A columnist for conspiracy site WND asked whether the Obama administration has "orchestrated" Ebola and other crises in order to declare "martial law" and seize everyone's guns.  

In recent weeks, conservative media figures have used the Ebola story to attack the Obama administration with twisted criticism, with radio host Michael Savage going so far as to suggest the administration was hoping to "infect the nation." Now Morgan Brittany, actress and host of conservative online show PolitiChicks, ponders in her WND column, "What If The Conspiracy Theories Are True?"

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/10/08/conservative-columnist-is-the-government-orches/201070



Obama has "orchestrated" -- meaning deliberately, and with malice aforethought, engineered the arrival of Ebola in America as part of his dastardly plan to take away the wingnut's cap guns.

All of which validates The Gadfly's previously proffered observation that the one disease which has more potential to decimate the fabric of American society more than any other is the brain eating disease of modern-day conservatism.

And that's that.




----TFG

**UPDATE**: Where's TMZ When You Really Need Them? . . .

Here's the follow up story on the drunken Palin family brawl from a few weeks ago, including official police reports:

When police arrived on scene, tensions were still high. Officer Benjamin Nelson arrived at the home to find Sarah and Todd Palin arguing with others. At another point, Todd, Track and Willow Palin, another Palin daughter, confronted homeowner Klingenmeyer in his driveway, and police had to separate the parties, officers John Daily and Ruth Adolf wrote.

Officer Justin Blake described arriving to find a group of people heading toward a long, white limousine parked in the street. Blake noted a strong smell of alcohol coming from the group. Track Palin, shirtless and bloodied, was being led into the limousine by several others, who appeared “intent on keeping him away from me,” the officer wrote..........

........Daily described Bristol Palin as “heavily intoxicated and upset.” She told Daily that Klingenmeyer had pushed her to the ground and dragged her across the lawn after she had attempted to confront a woman about hitting her younger sister, Willow. Bristol said she was beginning to leave when she saw her brother attacked. She told Daily she “didn’t have any clue” whether she hit Klingenmeyer or not.

Klingenmeyer told Daily he was “angry that the Palins had showed up and were causing the problems,” and that he was considering filing charges but he later told another officer that he had changed his mind.

http://www.adn.com/article/20141009/anchorage-police-no-charges-palin-birthday-brawl



The Obama family are, by their public behavior and their accomplishments, model Americans, but because their skin color is black and their politics aren't cruel, stupid and insane enough, conservatives are abhorred by their presence in the White House.

But the half-wit quitter Sarah Palin and her booze-hound, snowbilly clan??  They're considered model citizens and worthy of being America's face of leadership to the rest of the world. . . . . huh?

It is The Gadfly's consummate view that America not only dodged a bullet when they turned away McCain and Mama Grizzly from control of the White House ---- they dodged a goddamn Hellfire missile.



----TFG

When Can We Stop Pretending These Assholes Care About America???....

Jon Stewart takes a baseball bat and slams it upside the head of one of the scumbag oligarchs who had a dirty hand in ruining this nation's and the world's economies . . . .

The Daily Show
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God -- why can't our mainstream media inform us of this shit?  Why do we have to watch a comedy show on cable tv to hear about how these elitist business fuckers are shaking down the American people like fucking mafia bag men?

Time to get serious about opening up that pitchfork factory . . . . .





----TFG

Black In the Saddle Again . . . . .

Ahh . . .

It's good to be back in the Gadfly saddle again.

Let's get off on the right foot by watching Lewis Black wonder why it is that conservatives are going way out of their fucking way to deny people who don't necessarily agree with their policies the right to vote.

Take it away Lewis . . .






What the GOP and conservatives are doing with their efforts to throw up roadblock after roadblock to making it more convenient for Americans to exercise their right to participate in the electoral process is downright un-American.  And The Gadfly isn't going to keep quiet about it -- that much you dear readers can count on.



----TFG

The Path to Change Begins With Your Individual Decision to Make a Difference....

Oh dear . . .

Voter registration jumped 30 percent in Ferguson, Missouri between August 9 — the day unarmed teenager Michael Brown was fatally shot by Officer Darren Warren — and September 30. As protests and clashes with police continue, the town’s residents want to see more race representation in their local government in the near future.

Approximately 3,300 citizens in the town of 21,000 registered to vote after Brown’s death, totaling two-thirds of new voters in St. Louis County. Currently, 5 of 6 Ferguson council members are white, but roughly 70 percent of the city’s population is black. And Ferguson’s mayor is white Republican James Knowles.

http://thinkprogress.org/election/2014/10/03/3575472/ferguson-voter-registration/



The Gadfly will wager and guaran-goddamn-tee you dear readers that the only people who are sad about the prospect of more of their (primarily minority) citizens getting involved in the electoral process are the white establishment Republicans who rule the town and the area.

Good for the citizens of Ferguson.  Good on them for recognizing that change begins with getting involved and making your voice and your vote heard and counted.

Will the rest of you take heed of these people's example and do the same???????




----TFG

There Are No Pants Shitters in Foxholes . . . . .

Sadly -- this is not a fucking parody video:





"Radical Islamic terrorists are threatening to cause the collapse of our country President Obama is confused about the nature of the threat. Not me. I want to secure the border..."
[ h/t to digby:  http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2014/10/my-blood-runs-cold-slick-warmongering.html ]



This man is running to be one of 50 U.S. Senators -- leaders of this nation.

He is claiming that "Radical Islamic terrorists" are on the verge of causing the "collapse of our country."

He's talking about the same country that defeated Adolf Hitler and the Nazis and Japan in WW2.  He's talking about the same country that put a man on the moon.  He's talking about the same country that oversaw the global degradation of the power of communism.  He's talking about the same country that, despite it's flaws and despite allowing corporatism to hijack it's governing agenda, is still the beacon for freedom and democracy the world over.

Why is this man shitting in his underwear over the fantasized prospect of "Radical Islamist terrorists" hiding behind every tree and ready to jump out and scream BOO! at him??

This, dear readers, is your modern-day Republican Senate candidate.  This man is a coward.  Vote for him, and others who believe as he does, if you are sympathetic toward cowards.



----TFG

Dangerously Crazy People . . . .

On the heels of the Dallas, Texas Ebola case, The Gadfly knew it was coming . . . . surprised that it took them this long . . .

Right-wing radio talk show host Michael Savage announced yesterday that the Dallas patient diagnosed with Ebola proves his conspiracy theory that President Obama is deliberately bringing in diseases to kill Americans as part of his purported war on white people.

He claimed that a treasonous Obama “wants to infect the nation with Ebola,” warning that the president decided to send U.S. service members to West Africa in hopes that one of the soldiers would contract Ebola and bring it back home.

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/michael-savage-obama-wants-bring-ebola-epidemic-america-should-resign



That dastardly, evil, communist, terrorist appeasing Kenyan bastard!!!

Sigh . . . The Gadfly is convinced that if the right wingers in America get any stupider, the word stupid is going to spontaneously combust and a brand new word will have to be invented to describe their seriously delusional fucking stupidity.

The inimitable Charles Pierce was oh so goddamn right when he wrote this yesterday in regards to the "other" disease - the one that is inflicting America from within and which appears to be nearing pandemic proportions all on it's own - and one that has much more potential to destroy the fabric of our society than Ebola ever possibly could:

This reminds me of the early days of the AIDS epidemic, when undertakers refused to bury the dead, and emergency workers were afraid to treat people after automobile accidents and commonplace domestic catastrophes. Which is to say this isn't surprising at all. One of the other things that marked the early days of the AIDS epidemic was the truly wicked role played by various satraps of the Christian Right and by the nascent conservative media bubble machine. There was talk of God's vengeance upon gay people, and more talk of curses than we'd heard in this country since the Mather family closed up shop in Massachusetts Bay. Then, of course, transfusion patients and hemophiliacs began to die, and the gay community rallied itself heroically, and the disease finally got itself treated as a disease, and not some creature out of the subtext of Leviticus. This is where the historical parallel ends. Unfortunately.

What we had in the AIDS epidemic was political opportunism married to what became obvious ignorance. What we are seeing now, promulgated by a conservative bubble machine that has built a self-sustaining universe around itself, is political opportunism married to an active campaign of disinformation. This is a terrible thing. The people making a profit out of it are people who are too lazy to mug old ladies or swindle the blind. The people making a profit out of it are people without consciences, people who are as free of patriotism as they are free of the inconveniences of having a soul. These are dangerous people, and it's far past time for the honorable people in my profession to stop treating them like the worthless hacks they are. They are no longer cute. They are no longer funny. They are no longer the respectable "other side" of some fanciful imaginary political debate. They are dangerous propagandists. They are peddling poisonous lies and putting people's lives at risk. Every journalist who treats them as anything else, and every politician who treats them as anything else, are actively abetting evil.

Take, for example, Laura Ingraham, who cashes a very nice check from ABC News in addition to her day job as a radio flamethrower. Ingraham has begun to traffic in "alternative" theories about Ebola, treating a virus as though it were another vote to suppress or immigrant to bash, and lending her microphone to fringe nitwits because panic is profitable, and because almost everything, even a rare disease, is worth throwing at a president you don't like.

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/The_Man_With_The_Disease#comments



Wake up fellow citizens.  These people are not thinking of the best interests of this country and ALL of it's people. They are narrow-minded, tribal partisans who give way more of a shit about their ideology than they do about the long-term prospects for America's future.

The sooner more people wake up and realize that reality, the sooner we can get on with the business of marginalizing them and letting the real adults deal with this nation's critical issues.




----TFG