September, 2013 archive
Night of the Long Knives 0
Chauncey Devega unloads on Republican efforts to destroy the food stamp program.
Here’s a snippet:
It is a decision to kill poor people.
In America, discussions of poverty are linked in the public imagination to stereotypes about race, class, and gender. The face of poverty is not white (the group which in fact comprises the largest group of recipients for government aid). Instead, it is the mythical black welfare queen, or an “illegal” immigrant who is trying to pilfer the system at the expense of “hard working” white Americans.
Discussions about poverty are also easily transformed into claims about morality and virtue. Consequently, while the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is very efficient and involves very little if any fraud on the part of its participants, stereotypes about the poor can be used to legitimate the policing and harassment of Americans in need of food support through mandatory drug testing and other unnecessary programs.
Here, the long-term end goal for Republicans is revealed for what it is—a desire to make being a poor person into a crime.
He’s quite correct, you know. The Republican positions on helping the poor cannot be separated from their decision, at the time Nixon initiated the odious Southern Strategy, to become the new Confederate Party. Witness this comparison of the Eisenhower platform with the Romney platform.
Do please read the rest.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Denied his chance to demonstrate politeness in the classroom.
Police later found bomb shrapnel, several rounds of bullets and improvised explosive devices at his home in Cumming.
More about how he prepared for his demonstration at the link.
Petrified by Protuberances 0
Stilly, stupid, childish in Johnson County, Kansas.
Cantor’s Cant 0
Melissa Harris Perry:
The Voter Fraud Fraud 0
Speaking of scams and frauds, Dan Casey of the Roanoke Times consults with local election officials on the latest Virginia Republican gut-out-the-vote effort.
The results are as I predicted–legitimate voters are getting kicked off the rolls. Here’s one nugget–follow the link for the whole sorry story.
One voter she mailed a cancellation letter to responded with surprise. It turned out he had moved out of Virginia, registered and voted elsewhere, but recently moved back to Roanoke at the same address.
Shepherd couldn’t undo the cancellation. So she guided him through the process of reregistering.
Registrars, who are already overworked preparing for November’s election, worry that many voters won’t learn that they have been “purged” until it’s too late to reregister, which, no doubt, is part of the plan.
Internet Four Stars 2
The yearlong investigation encompassed companies that create fake reviews as well as the clients that buy them. Among those signing the agreements are a charter bus operator, a teeth-whitening service, a laser hair-removal chain and an adult entertainment club. Also signing are several reputation-enhancement firms that place fraudulent reviews on sites like Google, Yelp, Citysearch and Yahoo.
There were also fake reviews of dentists, lawyers, and medical imaging services.
I know that some persons pay attention to online reviews. I rarely do, because I get comment spam almost every day from “SEO” outfits promising to boost ratings. Granting that there are things that you or your web person can do to make your site friendlier to search engines, third party SEO consultancy is by and large a fraud and a scam.
If you must read online reviews, read the ones here.
Via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“The War To End All Wars” . . . 0
. . . also known as World War I, continues to spawm more wars.
Shaun Mullen explores its continuing legacy of bloodshed, augmented by the perfidy of the British in betraying their Arab allies against the Ottoman Empire.
Just read it.
No Place To Hide, Good News for Stalkers Dept. 0
Donna Sciulli is one of the most photographed women in Pittsburgh.
On Aug. 30, they snapped shots of her picking up groceries at the Pennsylvania Macaroni Co. in the Strip District. Two days earlier, shutters flew as she drove past the U.S. Steel Tower.
And outside her Beechview home, she’s been pictured nearly a dozen times.
Ms. Sciulli is not a celebrity. She is, however, one of the 80,000 Pittsburgh drivers whose license plates had been scanned multiple times in August by the Pittsburgh Parking Authority, which is using cameras mounted on cruisers to record a massive database of where and when everyday people go about their business.
Cars are photographed ostensibly to determine whether they have outstanding parking tickets.
And, since the Parking Authority considers its snapshots to be a public records and keeps them on file and on line for at least 30 days, whether or not outstanding violations are found (in the great majority of cases, they are not), anyone can track anybody.
Troglodytes Who Text 0
The racists just can’t help themselves, can they?
The Inky has a more MSM take.
Be sure to read the transcripts. (You may have to use your browser’s “zoom” feature to read them clearly.)
Honest to Pete, you’d think folks smart enough to land jobs as “senior administrators” in a school system would be smart enough to know what they shouldn’t put in writing. It leads one to wonder whether they really cared about the students in their charge.
Via Atrios.
Unbalanced Line 0
Flavor Wars 0
Asia Times reports on the spread of proprietary seeds in the Balkans (they are already dominant in the US).
A nugget, about that special species produced when some big seed company crossed a tomato with a styrofoam cup:
“Most probably you’ll end up with one which has a white, inedible middle. It comes from the gene that was introduced to keep the tomato firm,” she told IPS. Such tomatoes are never ripe; they only get red from the outside, Zdravkovic said.
According to Zdravkovic and experts from the Faculty of Agriculture at the Belgrade University, indigenous species have lost the battle against the big international seed-producing companies. Native species have been reduced to being cultivated either in private gardens or in small local areas.
Read the rest and weep for the loss of food and flavor, as food gets replaced by stuff like this.
The Circular Firing Squad Cruzes On 0
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
More politeness on the highways, more happiness is a warm gun, yes it is.
If everyone had been armed, this would not have happ–oh, wait.
Never mind.
Corporate Takeover 4
Wisconsin State Representative Chris Taylor recently attended an ALEC conference.
Here’s a snippet from his report. It speaks for itself (emphasis added).
This is where democracy can win over special interest influence. In ALEC nation, people are irrelevant and democracy a burden. When the people’s interests are truly represented by policy-makers, and the origin of bills exposed, ALEC fails.
ALEC’s corporate funders, who are also campaign donors to many ALEC members, have shrouded themselves in secrecy for this reason.
Read the rest.
