They're Only Catholic on Paper -- They're True God is $$$$ -- They Are Simply too Morally Disingenuous to Admit it . . . .

The Gadfly does not believe that it can be denied that it is a steadily shrinking circle of wagons that the hard-core conservatives and their ideology appear to be entrenched behind when they find themselves attacking the religious leader of their own faith.

Fox's Sean Hannity: "The Pope Sounds Like He Is Against Capitalism"
Hannity: "I, As A Catholic, Agree With Rush" Limbaugh

http://mediamatters.org/video/2013/12/17/foxs-sean-hannity-the-pope-sounds-like-he-is-ag/197303


Not that it matters a whit, or that people of Hannity's mindset would even want to hear it, but Pope Francis' message was not a universal condemnation of capitalism.  In fact, The Pope even acknowledged that capitalism could be a force for much good in the world.

What the Pope was criticizing was the "idolatry of money" and the relentless, uncaring greed that has fostered an unprecedented wealth inequality gap, not just here in America, but around the world, and as a result, is adversely impacting people's fundamental rights, including access to capital, services, educational resources, health care and technology.  And his warning was not that Marxism was a preferable socio-economic system over capitalism, but that capitalism, when practiced at the hands of powerful, callous and greedy human beings is not a system worthy of praise, and in fact, should be a warning signal that it is time to rethink our models of economic development and to temper lifestyles.

However if you were to try and have that rational conversation with the Hannitys and Limbaughs of the world, you would only be inviting their snide vitriol along with the obligatory accusations of communist appeasement upon yourself.  That is how narrow-minded the world that these people have withdrawn themselves into has become.

Even though he is taking some right wing flak for it right now, The Gadfly happens to agree completely with President Obama's new economic adviser John Podesta when he stated in an interview from a few months ago that the Obama administration had better wise up to the reality that they are "facing a second term against a cult worthy of Jonestown in charge of one of the houses of Congress."  And if you are old enough to know anything about Jonestown, then you should be able to see the parallels between that tragedy and the reactionary, uncompromising and selfish behaviorism which symbolizes the Hannity/Limbaugh/Tea Party crowd, who quite clearly, wield a great amount of influence within the Republican party these days.

But getting back to Pope Francis -- Far be it for The Gadfly to advise self-professed Catholics like Fox's Sean Hannity and Stuart Varney and AM radio propagandist Rush Limbaugh on matters related to their chosen religion, but it seems conceivable to The Gadfly that the man "chosen" to be the intermediary spokesperson between God Almighty and the followers of that faith, might be deserving of a bit more respect than some schmuck sitting on a bar stool that you find yourself in an inebriated state of verbal fisticuffs with over politics.

Just saying . . . . .



----TFG

A Teachable Moment . . . . .

That wasn't so hard now was it?:

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) weighed in Tuesday on the whole "white Santa" thing. And it sounds like she's unlikely to be asked on Fox News any time soon to talk about the issue.

Asked about the matter, Brewer said she thought Santa is no single color.

"I've never given him any thought." Brewer said, after initially responding to the question with laughter. "I would imagine that he's probably white, yellow, black -- every color. Santa Claus is Santa Claus to everyone, red, white, yellow, black. We're all children."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/jan-brewer-santa-claus-is-every-color


You see Megyn Kelly and Fox - Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, who incidentally has never been accused of being an intellectual giant, effortlessly demonstrates how it is that you avoid stepping in a huge, steaming pile of maggot-infested shit of your own making.  But no - you clowns had to insist, and then double-down and more forcefully insist that Santa Claus is unequivocally a white dude.

But then again, that was all part of your juvenile game plan to begin with - wasn't it?  Because who in their right fucking mind assembles a panel of supposedly "serious" media people to debate the skin color of a fictional character to begin with - and then airs it on a national cable "news" network?

And The Gadfly's detractors still wonder why he mocks Fox "News" so incessantly?

Whatever . . . .



----TFG

Well . . . You Do Have To Admit - It is Progress . . . .

[ Click Pic For Large Version ]

On-going advancements in the science of human self-recognition:

Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI) thinks some of his fellow Republicans sound downright primitive when they talk to voters.

"You have people on our side of the aisle that have a really abrasive tone," Duffy said Tuesday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "We can come across as knuckle-dragging Neanderthals on occasion."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/gop-rep-republicans-come-across-as-knuckle-dragging-neanderthals-on-occasion-video


The only argument you will get from The Gadfly on this statement would be the part about "on occasion."



----TFG

Something is Wrong . . . Something is Very, Very Wrong . . . .

The Gadfly knew that there was an escalating problem on this issue, but honestly was stunned to find out that it is this horrifyingly out of control:

The United States has about five percent of the world’s population and houses around 25 percent of its prisoners. In large part, that’s the result of the “war on drugs” and long mandatory minimum sentences, but it also reflects America’s tendency to criminalize acts that other countries view as civil violations.

In 2010, The Economist highlighted a case in which four Americans were arrested for importing lobster tails in plastic bags rather than in cardboard boxes. That violated a Honduran law which that country no longer enforces, but because it’s still on the books there its enforced here. “The lobstermen had no idea they were breaking the law. Yet three of them got eight years apiece.” When the article was published 10 years later, two of them were still behind bars.

http://crooksandliars.com/2013/12/land-free-us-has-25-percent-world-s


Get that dear readers?  The country that is supposedly a beacon to liberty and freedom seekers the world over, holds 25% (1/4th) of all of the incarcerated people on the entire planet in it's own jails and prisons.

It has become so bad that as the article goes on to state:

According to a 2012 report in The New York Times, state spending on prisons is now growing faster than any other budget item other than Medicaid. California now spends more on its prisons than its higher education system – a stark reversal from thirty years ago, when it spent three times as much educating its citizens than locking them up.

How in the fucking name of Jeebus H. Kripes do we as a nation expect to thrive and prosper as the world's foremost democracy when we are spending our tax dollars at three times the rate on imprisoning and keeping imprisoned our citizenry than we are in providing them with a quality education?

How did we get to this ignominious point in our short history as a nation state?  This is the kind of statistic that a country, whose founding principles employ lofty words and phrases such as "equality," "unalienable rights," "life," "liberty," and "the pursuit of happiness," should simply be ashamed of.

The article highlights one of the obvious causes of this atrociousness, namely the now widely recognized miserable failure that has been the 40+ year old national "war on drugs."  But there are other culprits as well and the article, worth reading even if a bit lengthy, documents other contributing factors.

And as it so happens, one of those contributing factors, and in The Gadfly's humble view, one of the most despicable, has only cropped up in the past decade --- and that is the privatization of the prison industry.  As a Mother Jones article recently noted:

We are living in boom times for the private prison industry. The Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation's largest owner of private prisons, has seen its revenue climb by more than 500 percent in the last two decades. And CCA wants to get much, much bigger: Last year, the company made an offer to 48 governors to buy and operate their state-funded prisons. But what made CCA's pitch to those governors so audacious and shocking was that it included a so-called occupancy requirement, a clause demanding the state keep those newly privatized prisons at least 90 percent full at all times, regardless of whether crime was rising or falling.

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/09/private-prisons-occupancy-quota-cca-crime


In other words, factoring the corporate facets of profit margins and investor returns on investment in to the equation of locking people up appears to be influencing lawmakers to legislate new laws, and update existing laws, with the thought firmly in mind that taxpayers will be on the hook for private prison beds that remain empty.  Got to fill those beds somehow - right?  The only solution?  More draconian laws!

Hell - if we keep this shit up, it's only a matter of time before debtor's prisons return as a routine aspect of our society -- which was basically the act of imprisoning people for the crime of being too poor to pay off their financial debts and . . . oh shit! . . . . . The Gadfly spoke too soon:

ByALAIN SHERTER  MONEYWATCH April 5, 2013, 12: 39 PM

(MoneyWatch) Thousands of Americans are sent to jail not for committing a crime, but because they can't afford to pay for traffic tickets, medical bills and court fees.

If that sounds like a debtors' prison, a legal relic which was abolished in this country in the 1830s, that's because it is. And courts and judges in states across the land are violating the Constitution by incarcerating people for being unable to pay such debts. 

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/as-economy-flails-debtors-prisons-thrive/


Sigh . . . .

The Gadfly can only bring these issues to your attention dear readers.  It's up to you to find the collective will to do something about it with the goal of effecting the necessary changes which are needed to put us, as a unified country, back on the path to "Liberty and Justice For All."



----TFG

Why Do Conservatives Fear and Hate Democracy? . . . .

The Gadfly is curious.

Just how many of these GOP initiated, tax-payer funded voter fraud investigations, which ultimately and predictably reveal that there is no proof of any massive, organized effort at voter fraud, have to occur before responsible people stand up and say "Enough of this idiotic bullshit - you have had much more than your fair chance to prove your claims and you have failed!  Enough fucking already!!?" :

Eighteen months and $150,000 later, a rigorous voter fraud investigation commissioned by Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz (R) has failed to produce any statistically significant evidence of voter fraud in Iowa, according to The Des Moines Register.

Since taking office in 2011, Schultz has made safeguarding the ballot box from fraud a top state priority, striking a two-year deal with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation in 2012 that directed $280,000 of federal funds toward voter fraud inquiries. Additionally, a full-time agent was hired and assigned to pursue voter fraud cases.

Although Schultz had expected to unveil “a lot” of voter fraud cases, the investigation so far has yielded just five guilty pleas and five dismissals, The Des Moines Register reported late Sunday.

Of the five guilty pleas, three of them involved felons who had completed their prison terms but whose voting rights had not yet been restored when they went to vote.

In another case, a woman cast an absentee ballot for her daughter, who had recently moved to Minnesota and told her mother that she had missed the registration deadline there. After learning her daughter ultimately did vote in Minnesota, the mother self-reported the double-voting incident to the local county auditor’s office, resulting in a $147.75 fine, according to The Des Moines Register.

In the fifth guilty plea, a man was incidentally charged with voter fraud after a drunk driving arrest revealed that he had stolen his dead brother’s identity to obtain a driver’s license.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/16/iowa-voter-fraud_n_4455110.html

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20131216/NEWS09/312160041/Iowa-voter-fraud-probe-nets-few-cases-no-trials-since-July-2012?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFrontpage&gcheck=1


The Gadfly, however, does not realistically expect conservatives to throw in the towel just yet, regardless of the fact that, to date, they have failed miserably to prove any significant level of organized vote fraud anywhere in the country.

And their reasoning is simple -- these claims of voter fraud are the new, manufactured boogeyman (kind of like communists and Sharia Law) which conservatives and the GOP are peddling to the rubes and cynically using as justification to railroad through state-level legislation designed specifically to prevent as many as possible of those citizens, whom they know have no intention of voting their way, from showing up at the polls on election day and casting a legal ballot.

It is nothing more than a concerted, insidious effort to undermine the constitutionally guaranteed right of Americans whom they politically disagree with to participate in the democratic process.

In a sane world, these efforts would be called out by those who truly respect democracy for the anti-American actions that they are.  Period.  But sadly, as we have seen, the commodity of sanity is in short supply across the land these days.



----TFG

And The Plot Thickens . . .

 Oh my .  .  . :

Updated: December 16, 2013, 4:26 PM

Comparing the technology used by the National Security Agency to George Orwell's dystopian fiction, a federal judge on Monday ruled that the NSA's bulk collection of telephone metadata is likely unconstitutional.

U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon's ruling found that an NSA program that was approved by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court likely violates the Fourth Amendment prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures -- and that the court precedent used in the past to justify the program is out of date.

"The almost-Orwellian technology that enables the Government to store and analyze the phone metadata of every telephone user in the United States is unlike anything that could have been conceived in 1979," Leon wrote in his opinion.

The ruling came in response to two lawsuits originally brought in June by the conservative legal activist Larry Klayman and four other plaintiffs against government agencies and officials, as well as telecom and internet companies. In his ruling, Leon wrote that the bulk collection and analysis of phone records "almost certainly does violate a reasonable expectation of privacy.

"It's one thing to say that people expect phone companies to occasionally provide information to law enforcement; it is quite another to suggest that our citizens expect all phone companies to operate what is effectively a joint intelligence-gathering operation with the Government," Leon wrote.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/federal-judge-nsa-metadata-program-is-likely-unconstitutional


The folks over at Spooks, Inc. (The NSA), must be crapping in their collective skivvies at this point.  Yesterday we heard from anonymous inside sources that they were considering extending an offer of amnesty to Double-Naught Spy Edward Snowden, if only he would, pretty please, give back the blueprints for the Spook's Death Star infrastructure.

And now today comes news that a federal judge who was appointed by George W. Bush, is pretty much validating what the inimitable Mr. Snowden has been contending was the motive for his double-naught actions from the beginning - namely that what the NSA has been doing in the name of "national security" is a blatant transgression against U.S. constitutional law, and that the American people deserved to have such issues adjudicated in the public courts.

Far be it for The Gadfly to claim he knows what was going on in Judge Richard Leon's mind that influenced his decision, but for a federal judge to invoke the term "Orwellian" in his opinion smacking down the NSA - it is nothing short of breathtaking - especially considering the generally accepted meaning of the term:

"Orwellian" is an adjective describing the situation, idea, or societal condition that George Orwell identified as being destructive to the welfare of a free and open society. It connotes an attitude and a brutal policy of draconian control by propaganda, surveillance, misinformation, denial of truth, and manipulation of the past, including the "unperson" — a person whose past existence is expunged from the public record and memory, practiced by modern repressive governments. Often, this includes the circumstances depicted in his novels, particularly Nineteen Eighty-Four.

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

 
Frankly - that is about as forceful a legal bitch slap as one can get folks.

Nonetheless, if anything at this point, the inimitable Mr. Snowden might be thinking that he has the upper hand in this epic struggle with his former employer.  However, The Gadfly would caution Mr. Snowden that he is still embroiled in a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse with people who don't take kindly to, or treat kindly, those who would upset their cloak & dagger equilibrium, and whether he would acknowledge it or not, he is still the mouse in this game and the cat's hunger is nowhere near having been satiated.  The Gadfly would argue in fact, that the cat is now more resolved than ever to pounce on the unsuspecting mouse and devour him in a fell swoop should a reasonable opportunity present itself.

Ahh -- but such is the sensational and perilous life of a Double-Naught Spy -- no?:






----TFG

Huh?

The Gadfly is certain that some of these right wingers are just out and out closet crack heads.

Observe a tweet earlier today from a North Carolina GOP state senator :

Justice Robert's pen & Obamacare has done more damage to the USA then the swords of the Nazis,Soviets & terrorists combined.
— Bob Rucho (@SenatorBobRucho) December 15, 2013

Of course -- helping 40 million of your fellow citizens gain access to basic, affordable health care is exactly the same as Hitler's having slaughtered 12 million people during his reign of murder, the deaths of another 7 million in Josef Stalin's gulags and all of the murderous acts committed by present day terrorists.

Sigh . . . .

Frankly, if you ask The Gadfly's humble opinion, instead of drug testing the poor before granting them public assistance or the jobless before approving their unemployment claims, we instead should be conducting drug tests of some of these politicians as a condition of their taking office, and then randomly testing them throughout their tenure.

Asshole.



----TFG

One Tin Solder Rides Away . . . .

Goddamn it!  On the heels of hearing news of Peter O'Toole's death earlier today, now this:

Actor-writer-director Tom Laughlin, whose production and marketing of Billy Jack set a standard for breaking the rules on and off screen, has died. He was 82.

Laughlin's daughter told the Associated Press that he died Thursday at Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, Calif. Teresa Laughlin, who acted in the Billy Jack movies, said his cause of death was complications from pneumonia.

Billy Jack was released in 1971 after a long struggle by Laughlin to gain control of the low-budget, self-financed movie, a model for guerrilla filmmaking.

He wrote, directed and produced Billy Jack and starred as the ex-Green Beret who defends a progressive school against the racists of a conservative Western community. The film became a counterculture favorite and the theme song, "One Tin Soldier," was a hit single for the rock group Coven. 

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20766599,00.html


What can you say -- he was Billy Jack -- 'nuff said.

RIP Tom Laughlin:








----TFG

A Great One is Gone . . . .

One of the great actors of The Gadfly's lifetime, Peter O'Toole passed away today.

Here is O'Toole as King Henry II in the classic 1968 film 'The Lion in Winter.':





RIP.



----TFG

The Only Thing They Have to Fear is Fear Itself . . . . .

Oh dear . . . . :

National Security Agency officials are considering a controversial amnesty that would return Edward Snowden to the United States, in exchange for the extensive document trove the whistleblower took from the agency.

An amnesty, which does not have the support of the State Department, would represent a surprising denouement to an international drama that has lasted half a year. It is particularly unexpected from a surveillance agency that has spent months insisting that Snowden’s disclosures have caused vast damage to US national security.

The NSA official in charge of assessing the alleged damage caused by Snowden’s leaks, Richard Ledgett, told CBS News an amnesty still remains controversial within the agency, which has spent the past six months defending itself against a global outcry and legislative and executive proposals to restrain its broad surveillance activities.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/15/nsa-edward-snowden-amnesty-documents


The fact that Spooks, Inc. are even openly considering an offer of amnesty for the inimitable Mr. Snowden signifies that they are scared.  Very, very scared.

Stay tuned.  This stuff could become even more intriguing quite quickly.



----TFG