Kerfuffle

Don't let the door hit you on the ass on your way out the FOX News door, Glenn...

Pop some popcorn.  This is a good one:  Media Matters' tribute to everything we will miss about the Glenn Beck comedy show:  "Requien for a Rodeo Clown."

Wow, what a nut case. I will so totally miss this guy's lunacy on TV.  After tomorrow's show, FOX News kicks him to the curb bids him a fond farewell.

Words have consequences. Violent words have violent consequences.

Talking to you, Sarah Palin.

Remember this?  It was on your website until ealrier today:

You have fucking crosshairs marked over Congressmens' districts!  Crosshairs!  Like in "shoot a gun at them" crosshairs.  This thing was up for months.

And now someone took you up on it and made a direct hit.  It's called assassination.  Nice going Sarah.  Just scrubbing this graphic from the site doesn't make it -- or its underlying intent -- go away.

No matter how you try to paint over your hateful rhetoric with your offer to pray for U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords on your Facebook page, you are complicit in her assassination attempt.  You know it, I know it and the rest of the world knows it.  The blood of a sitting United States Congresswoman, a federal judge, and others may not be on your hands, but it sure as hell splattered on you and your political lemmings.

If any good comes out of this tragedy, it will be that people finally see you and your followers for what they truly are:  ignorant, violent asshats. 

I think you've done enough damage to the country, Ms. Palin.  Please go away.  Far, far away. 

Funny how AT&T is quick to answer the "New Service" calls but really, really slow to pick up on the "Disconnect" calls. Does this mean AT&T customer serivce sucks, that they are intentionally trying to piss off people who want to dump them, or both?

We moved my Dad into an assisted living community last week.  I'm now doing a lot of the follow up stuff like disconnecting his utilities at his old townhouse.

So far, Verizon wins the customer service derby.  Connected with a live person within three menu choices and two rings.  The entire disconnect process for local phone service took less than three minutes.

Meanwhile, I am still listening to the annoyingly repetitive AT&T hold message telling me how committed they are to serving their customers.  Dad had his long distance with AT&T.  Amazingly, he has been paying over $40 a month or more for the same level of service he will be paying $10 at his new home.  That service will be provided by... AT&T.  He never looked into getting a better deal in the ten years he lived in the townhouse.  (Let that be a lesson to you, telecommunication consumers!)

What is most annoying about AT&T's customer service is that the customer has no choice but to call in to cancel long distance service.  It can't be done on line nor by mail.  And it can't just be ignored either, because AT&T will continue to bill the monthly service charges, required government fees and other taxes even if the local service (from Verizon in this case) has been disconnected.

So far, I have been able to read most of today's newspaper, catch up on email, and write this post in the time I've been on hold with AT&T customer service... 43 minutes now, and counting.  FORTY THREE fucking minutes.  I have to think this is actually intentional.  This is the only path one can take to cancel service.  I wouldn't put it past AT&T to figure than a lot of people will give up, only to rack up fees for several months and not even know it.

Well, AT&T, with every loop of the 30-second promotional blather I am listening to on the speaker phone while waiting, I am more and more inclined to dump you for my iPhone service as soon as Apple allows Verizon into the provider pool.  Count on it.  Every time your recording tells me I am a "valued customer" I feel less and less valued.  I look forward to bidding you farewell.

51 minutes and counting. 

Update:  72 minute wait time, and then a few minutes more insisting I reconsider.  Asshats.

Today's installment of the curious nature of Republican values: "Rape's OK with Us" edition

Yeah, I know.  This has been around for more than a few days now.  But it still both amazes and annoys me.  Thirty Republicans in the US Senate voted against an amendment that would hold government contractors to the law.  In this case, the law has to do with rape.  And the contractor in the hot seat is perennial Republican darling KBR (you might know them as Halliburton).

John Stewart does what the mainstream (you might know them as "liberal") media doesn't bother to do:  call these assholes on their behavior...

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Rape-Nuts
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

I especially love that Stewart points out that these same clowns were ever-so-quick to scream for ACORN's funding to be cut for crimes that could have been but weren't.  But they say that trying to get involved with who the government hires and what standards to hold them to isn't really in their purview.  Really?  What a bunch of hypocritical bullshit.  You guys can't call this KBR-Rape's OK issue "playing politics" while pouncing on ACORN before facts were even assembled.  And I'm not sticking up for ACORN; they created their own problems.  But how can you vote in favor of KBR over rape?  Just couldn't bring yourselves to vote for something that has Al Franken's name on it, huh?  Fucking petulant children.

(Like how Stewart uses the word "kerfuffle" in his report.  An underused but fun word, at least in my view.  As you'd likely expect from me.) 

Never underestimate the potential of web sites dedicated to making fun of others: PeopleOfWalMart.com

Skip on past if this is old news to you, or if you think making fun of other people just for the way they look is uncouth and improper.  But sneak a peak at some of the pictures first, just for laughs.

I first heard about PeopleOfWalMart.com shortly after it launched in August.  Pretty simple concept, as outlined by the site's authors/editors/laughmakers...

People of Walmart was founded in August of 2009 by three friends and roommates after an inspirational trip to Walmart.

Let’s face it; we all have seen the people who obviously don’t have mirrors and/or family and friends to lock them in a basement, and they all seem to congregate at Walmart. It’s not everywhere that you can shop for milk at 10 a.m. next to a 400lb mother of 6 wearing a pink tube top, leopard tights, and hooker heels. Where else can one go to pick up underwear at 3 O’clock in the afternoon and spot the greatest mullet of all time paired with a mustard stained wife beater (which only accents the extreme amount of body hair) and camo pants that were actually used in Vietnam.

The site has its fans (over 46,000 on a FaceBook fan page), and the guys who run it post some of their fan email, like this one from "Jackie"...

I (unfortunately) work at a Wal-Mart in Ohio, and heard about the site from one of my co-workers. It is so funny, and sadly true. We get some real winners in there, but you already know that! lol Keep up the good work, and maybe my co-workers and I can get some good pics for you. Summer is over though, so no more short shorts. Thanks for the laughs! [Note: smiley face provided by Jackie.  I try never to do that here.]

On the flip side, some don't se the humor at all, like Tracy, who feels "icky" after visiting...

I’m only one regretful reader, but your website is not sharply witty or clever, just cruel and childish. i hope you don’t consider yourselves edgy underground internet comedians because you’re not. who knows what you’re really like, but from reading your site, you sound like a bunch of sexist, arrogant meatheads. no offense. i just feel kinda icky after visiting it.

To their credit, the site operators do have limits...

...we do not wish to poke fun at people who, through no fault of their own, are handicapped. Absolutely NO pictures of someone mentally or physically handicapped will be added to the site…we aren’t complete dicks.

I especially like the disclaimer...

We would also like to stress that we are in no way liable if you get your ass beat by Bubba when he catches you taking his picture.

Is it wrong to laugh, out loud, while looking at this site?  Maybe.  But, honestly, at least half of these photos beg the response:  "WTF were you thinking when you left the house?"  It's not a matter of trying to see oneself as an elitist looking at the great unwashed masses (although it may boost one's own self esteem knowing these folks are out there).  It's just fucking funny.  I'm sorry.  Yes, I think it's funny.  The captioning is often the best part.

Need some visual proof?  OK then.

Caption:  How cute and cuddly are those stuffed...OH MY GOD!

Caption:  It’s like those shorts are managing to cover nothing and everything at the same time.

Caption: Well the bleach from earlier obviously didn’t do the trick because I still see this…. I’m switching to Drano.

I am so going to hell, if there was one which I am betting there is not.  Meanwhile, i have to go pour bleach in my eyes.

Fake pimps and fake whores. Real guns and real felonies. Which should we be more concerned about?

Those videos of the central casting version of a white guy pretending to be a pimp and his pal doing her best to appear like a whore got a lot of people all kinds of worked up over ACORN.  It gave FOX News fodder for weeks, and ultimately ACORN lost funding and government contracts.

For what those videos showed, ACORN deserved to be investigated.  I have no disagreement with that at all.   It may have been a little more appropriate to investigate before passing judgment, but such a process fall under the IOKIYAR rule I guess.  (As an aside, though, props to RNC national chairman Michael "How We Roll" Steele for actually speaking up in favor of ACORN's CO.  I wonder how many GOP heads exploded on that one.  But I digress.)

That brings me to this video montage.  I am shocked -- shocked! -- that FOX New hasn't been all over this hidden video sting operation.  Can you believe it?  Private gun sales do not require background checks even at gun shows and the like... unless the sells knowingly sell to someone who gives reason for the seller to even suspect they may not pass a background check.  [18 U.S.C. §922(d)].

As noted by David Wildman at DK...

You can see more at GunShowUndercover.org, plus video of "straw purchases," where a presumably prohibited buyer makes the deal, then brings in someone totally different to fill out the paperwork and become the "owner," right in front of the eyes of federally licensed dealers.

Fake pimps. Fake "hos." Fake "brothels."

Real guns. Real crimes.

You tell me which one deserves time on the TeeVee, and a stampede to the floor of the House and Senate with new legislation in hand.

This series of stings was carried out by weapons investigators for the City of New York.  This wasn't a game of gotcha by a couple FOX wannabe operatives looking for a scandal.  These are real investigators uncovering real crimes involving real guns... not just fishing with "what ifs."  94% of their attempted gun purchases by people admitting they cannot pass a background check -- enough to stop a sale by law -- went through anyway.  (No word on how many of those ACORN "stings" didn't work.  I guess that's the difference between real and play investigation.)

Help register Black people to vote?  Evil!  Must be shut down by any means.  Sell assault weapons to people who could never pass a background check and openly admit it?  Hey, go on ahead now, ya hear?

I'm not here to try to defend the ACORN nonsense.  Much of it is indefensible based on what I know and read.  I just want to see the same attention paid to real gun sellers breaking the law repeatedly and putting very dangerous (and needless) weapons on the street in the hands of people the law clearly says should not be packing heat. 

Can you just smell those Republican values?  Mmmm.  Guns.

The problem in getting health care reform through Congress, explained in pictures

 

Matt Davies, New York Journal News

Matt Wuerker, Politico

Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune

Tony Auth, Philadelphia Inquirer

:::

It's about the money... the BIG money.  When Sarah Palin, nincompoop that she is, spews lies about "Obama's death panels," she seems to oblivious to the fact that insurance companies have de facto "death panels" right now.  Every time they drop someone or deny coverage, they are making a decision about someone's future based on cost.  How many of those decisions end in death, I must wonder.

Before you decide to get into an argument with Candice Dainty, beware: She's packing heat

Gun people really, really love their guns.  Why else would anyone insist AK-47s should be legal for, you know, sport?  The dubious interpretations of the Second Amendment -- the one about armed militias -- have bastardized a centuries-old provision going back to the days when everyone needed to be in the army and guns meant single shot muskets.

I have to wonder about people like Ms. Candice Dainty (left, with her peacemaker) who think along these lines...

"You make a store or a school or a bank a no-gun zone, you make it a prime target for somebody who wants to shoot the place up," says Sauk City gun advocate Candace Dainty.

Dainty, statewide organizer for the national group Second Amendment Sisters, is outspoken in her belief that guns -- carried in the open or concealed -- should be allowed anywhere: schools, public buildings, hospitals. Earlier this year, she tried to organize a rally to take place on June 16 on the grounds of the State Capitol. She scrubbed the plan, ironically, because she was afraid of who might show up with a gun. Reading an online forum on OpenCarry.org, she came upon discussions among several people who planned to show up with long guns, which would have taken the event in an unintended direction, she says.

"In every whole group, you're going to have a nut case or two," she says. "And my rally drew out the nut cases."  
[photo: Todd Krysiak/Sauk Prairie Eagle]

Yes, ma'am.  Although when it comes to head-cases with guns, there are a lot more of them than one or two that may show up at your rally.  All the more reason to NOT arm everyone.  And those responsible for local public safety seem to think guns are not the answer to increased violence...

Repealing either prohibition is a bad idea, according to Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney.

While acknowledging an advisory opinion by state Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen in April that citizens should not be sanctioned for carrying guns in public, Mahoney says, "I think we need to adhere to some exceptions."

He says he doesn't want schools to be put in harm's way, and he doesn't want his officers wondering if every driver they pull over has access to a gun.

And the argument that more guns equals less crime? He fears that deterring crime by citizen gunfire is a recipe for disaster.  "I don't know that we want the streets of Madison to be the OK Corral," he says.

Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz -- contending with heightened neighborhood unease in the wake of a 17-year-old high school student being gunned down on the city's southwest side two weeks ago, and the murder last week of a 23-year-old Madison man in nearby Fitchburg -- agrees.  "I don't think the answer to gun violence is more guns," he says. [Capital Times]

How'd things work out with an armed citizen just this week?

According to the warrant, Sharmarisa A. Hammonds, 21, told police she went to [Perry E.] Lucas’ apartment at 3309 Leopold Way with her boyfriend, Detarius Martin, along with Martin’s brother and a woman identified by [Fitchburg Police Lt. Todd] Stetzer as Danyelle Dalbec, who was Lucas’ former girlfriend.

After an argument broke out between a man and woman in the apartment, she and the Martin brothers walked away with Hammonds in the lead. She said she saw Lucas standing in the doorway with a handgun and got out of the hall. Within seconds she heard gunshots, the warrant states, and Chukarius and Detarius Martin ran to her saying they had been shot.

In a phone call to 911, the warrant states, Lucas told a dispatcher that he had taken out a gun and shot some people who had come to his apartment and “attacked me.”

But Stetzer said the contact between the people in the apartment had ended and they were walking away when Lucas came out of the apartment and fired at them. [Wisconsin State Journal]

The article points out that under a search warrant, police removed items including an assault rifle, vials of testosterone and anger management materials from the shooter's residence.  This from a guy who, from police reports, allegedly shot his victims as they were walking away.  So his gun didn't head off violence; it created it.  Even if the other guys had been carrying guns, this jerk seems to have shot them, at least figuratively, in the back.  The altercation appeared to have ended, but the coward with the gun shoots people as they walk away.  How in the hell would more armed people not resulted in more people getting shot?

In fairness, this is still under investigation, the shooter is an Iraqi war veteran, and reportedly has PTSD.  And guns.  He had guns.  As the sheriff said, talk about a recipe for disaster. 

Meanwhile, Ms. Dainty -- who ironically, in that picture with her hand-held cannon, looks anything but dainty -- things guns should be everywhere.  In church.  In schools.  In the Pick 'n' Save.  At McDonald's.  On the front seat of your car while you motor down the highway.  At your mom's funeral.  In the mall.  Sitting behind you in the movies.  I'd be feeling safer already just thinking about it... if I was batshit crazy.

Everyone carries guns everywhere.  I'm sorry, but that's fucked up.