Tag: Congress

Getting Smarter on Impeachment

Trish

Much as my fellow Pensito Reviewers will probably disagree with me, I have to pitch in with those who say Democrats are overreaching on this censuring and impeaching stuff. The plain, simple reality is that Republicans control both houses, and cows will climb trees before they go along with such moves.

Our best bet is to retake the Senate and House this year. When we’re in the catbird seat, look out Bush. Until then, we’re just venting, and venting is what the weak and powerless do. Don’t waste energy going after Bush. I’m not saying to give Bush a free pass, but that we should use his every misdeed as evidence to convince our fellow voters to throw the bums out. After we do that, we can have a little talk with the Boy King.

Ban GOP Marriage

Jon Ponder

Ohio Democratic state Senator Robert Hagan’s proposal to ban GOP adoption is a great idea. Hagan says “credible research” shows that adopted children raised in GOP households are more at risk for developing “emotional problems, social stigmas, inflated egos, and alarming lack of tolerance for others they deem different than themselves and an air of overconfidence to mask their insecurities.”

The main threat to the institution of marriage comes from the political right because so many GOP men and women cheat on their partners and have diseases. They are also prone to alcoholism and often die young.

If banning GOP adoption will prevent one more kid from having a miserable life, I’m for it. But why not nip the problem in the bud by eliminating the root cause of all our society’s ills: GOP marriage.

Over half of GOP marriages in the United States end in divorce. Half! That means that millions of marriages are destroyed by Republicans every year. (By contrast, the number of gay marriages that end in divorce in the United States is miniscule.)

Yes, the main threat to the institution of marriage comes from the political right because so many GOP men and women cheat on their partners and have diseases. They are also prone to alcoholism and often die young.

While GOP households are often unstable and cause a strain on the social fabric, fighting GOP marriage is first and foremost a moral issue. Adultery is the leading cause of divorce in mixed gender marriage — despite the fact that the Bible clearly states, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” (Why is it that GOP people cannot seem to understand that this is a Commandment, not a suggestion?)

Conversely, the Bible’s injunctions against gay sex are found only in a couple of obliquely worded passages among hundreds in the class of sins with eating pork, women wearing pants and improperly covering your poop whilst caravaning in the desert.

Please call or write your representatives and tell them that this country needs a constitutional amendment to save America from the iniquity of GOP marriage.

Stop GOP marriage now — before it’s too late.

Poll: Arnold Loses GOP Support, Overall Popularity Down to 35%

Jon Ponder

He Has Less Support Than President Bush at 36%

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s abrupt left turn this year has cost him support among California Republicans, while doing little to gain traction with the state’s liberal majority, according to a new poll:

Pandering to the left was Maria’s hail-mary pass. It didn’t work. The Terminator is toast.

Schwarzenegger’s approval rating fell to 35 percent among adults in the Public Policy Institute of California poll, down five points from last month…

Schwarzenegger now gets less support from Republicans in California than President Bush, whose approval rating is at a near record low of 36 percent.

Just 66 percent of Republicans said Schwarzenegger was doing a good job, while 74 percent said that of Bush. Last month, 72 percent of Republicans thought Schwarzenegger was doing a good job.

Schwarzenegger’s 35 percent approval rating puts him close to the 33 percent approval rating he had in October, when he was being pummeled by television ads decrying his special election.

Pandering to the left was Maria’s hail-mary pass. It didn’t work. The Terminator is toast.

Governor, please drop out of the race. You can start principal photography on T4 in January. It’s a win-win-win for you and the state and fans of your movies, if you have any left.

What’s Wrong With Rap Music?

Buck Banks

Rapping rap: In a guest commentary on The Black Commentator, Akweli Parker cuts loose on the current icons of rap music for their musical messages that glorify guns and drugs, and denigrate middle class values of hard work and achievement. Here are a couple of excerpts, but it’s worth reading the whole entertaining, insightful essay.

…. as we reflect on African Americans’ achievements this February during Black History Month, I find myself wondering just a bit more than usual, and a little more angrily than usual, What in the hell is going on with our music? It’s been hijacked by one-dimensional caricatures who stand to significantly retard, if not outright roll back, the progress African Americans have made in the past half-century.

……….

Yeah, I realize many of our brothers are born into poverty and despair, with seemingly few options besides “the trade” or other underground economy activities. But how do you explain immigrants of color who come to this country with less than nothing, and parlay it into the American Dream?

I have a theory: it’s that black peoples’ most visible role models are entertainers and athletes, admirable folks, but not the true bedrock of the upper middle class – that would be engineers, doctors, businesspeople and intellectuals.

Call me naive, but whatever happened to the quaint notion of conveying some type of pedagogic message in urban storytelling?

……….

Call me naive, but whatever happened to the quaint notion of conveying some type of pedagogic message in urban storytelling? MC’s like Grandmaster Flash, KRS-One, Public Enemy and Eric B. had it down. Somehow, they collectively managed to portray the gritty misery and violence of the streets, the sensuousness of black sexuality and that indispensable rap staple, shameless self-promotion, without promoting self-genocide.

………..

And so I make this simple plea: White people, since you are purportedly the largest purchasers of rap music – stop worshipping 50 and the nihilistic narcism of his music; same goes for other artistically devoid rap cartoons. Otherwise you’re encouraging them and setting back hard-working blacks. There are better rap acts more deserving of your money.

VP Medical Shocker: Cheney Secretly Underwent Cardiectomy

Jon Ponder

Useless organ removed: An unidentified source at the George Washington University Hospital has provided evidence that Vice Pres. Dick Cheney secretly underwent a radical cardiectomy Monday night. The source said the surgery began about 3:20 AM and took about 50 minutes to perform.

“It was determined that the patient had no more use for the organ — had not used it in a long, long time,” said the source, who witnessed the removal of the vice president’s heart. “Plus, he needed to lose a little weight,” the source added.

A senior Bush administration spoke on the condition of anonymity due to “fear for the lives of my children.”

The hospital staff member – who refused to be identified due to fear of “being disappeared to a black site prison” — also took a photo of the heart (shown above) which was described as “resembling a lump of coal.”

A spokesman for the hospital, Dr. Raji Guphta, refused to comment on any medical attention given the vice president except to confirm what had been reported earlier – that Cheney experienced shortness of breath and was given an EKG at about 3:00 AM.

However, when asked if a human being can live without a heart, Dr. Guphta replied, “No.”

A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity due to “fear for the lives of my children,” would neither confirm nor deny that Cheney had his heart removed.

Despite Cancellation at Theatre Owned by Homophobe, ‘Brokeback Mountain’ Tops Sales at Two Other SLC Theatres

Jon Ponder

Shot in foot: You have probably heard by now that, in an extremely unusual move, a movie theatre in Salt Lake City canceled the scheduled run of “Brokeback Mountain.”

The theatre – the poetically named Megaplex 17 – is owned by car dealer Larry H. Miller, and the movie’s run was canceled, of course, because “Brokeback Mountain” is a love story about two ranch hands who fall in love.

What you may not know is that while “Brokeback Mountain” was canceled at the Megaplex 17, it played at three other SLC theatres where it did strong business. According to Box Office Mojo:

On the four-day New Year’s frame, Brokeback Mountain earned $46,300 at the Broadway, landing among the top nationwide per-screen averages that weekend. For the weekend ending Jan. 8, the movie took in $18,823 there, still No. 1 in the complex… At the Century 16, Brokeback Mountain was also No. 1 with $12,741.

While Miller cancelled “Brokeback Mountain” assumedly on moral grounds, he had apparently no problems with “Hostel,” a (het) sex-drenched, violent horror film, for which the theatre grossed about $10,000 over the weekend.

As noted, theatre operators rarely cancel movie runs. A rep for Focus Features, the distributors of “Brokeback Mountain,” sounded outraged:

“It’s the most despicable practice that any exhibitor can do,” Focus’ head of distribution, Jack Foley, told Box Office Mojo. “It was a flagrant dismissal of a commitment, and without even a phone call. So I’m not in business with him anymore. It’s a breach of contract. It’s unethical. We can sue him.”

While a cynical observer might note that Larry Miller’s violation of his contract with Focus Features is part of a larger picture – that conservativism has a corrupting effect on its adherents that makes them put their own judgments and benighted moral positions above the law – why not focus on the positive: All the ink given this one cancellation out of 484 theatres nets out to be more free publicity for the film.

This leaves us with a win-win for the movie – nobody in Salt Lake City who wanted to see “Brokeback Mountain” was prevented from seeing it and the distributor got a lot of free publicity – and a loss Larry Miller, who lost ticket sales to other theatres in his market and comes off looking a big ol’ homophobe.

GOP Investigated Pres. Clinton’s Cat But Only Plans ‘Oversight’ on Pres. Bush’s Admitted Illegal Spying

Jon Ponder

Compare and contrast:

  • 1995: Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.), then chair of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, investigated whether taxpayers were footing the cost of stationery and postage for the fan club dedicated to President Clinton’s cat, Socks. (They were not – and it turns out Barbara Bush’s dog Millie had a fan club too.)
  • 2005: Two weeks ago, President Bush admitted he willfully flouted a law that requires him to get warrants before wiretapping U.S. citizens. His justification for ignoring the law appears to be LÉtat, c’est moi. In reaction, Republicans in charge of the Senate Judiciary Committee announced on Friday that they are planning “oversight” hearings into the matter.

The president has admitted he broke the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) hundreds of times. Isn’t it a bit late for “oversight?”

Chris Matthews, ‘Misinformer of the Year’

Jon Ponder

I’m a long-time “Hardball” viewer, and after all these years, I’m still not sure what to think about Chris Matthews.

Before he got his own slot on MSNBC, Matthews was a center-left newspaper columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. He moved to television just in time for the Clinton wars, when, like a lot of other DC Kool Kids – Maureen Dowd, Christopher Hitchens, Andrew Sullivan, to name a few – he apparently took the Clintons’ flaws and foibles as a personal betrayal.

Today, five years on, he is still mad at them – spittle flies anytime Hillary’s name comes up.

Matthews was idealistic in his youth. He joined the Peace Corps and was a speechwriter for Pres. Carter and a staff member for House Speaker Tip O’Neill. Now he treats his early resume as a liability. Like the class brainiac who plays dumb so he can hang out with the jocks, he over-compensates for his liberal past by toadying up to Republicans, and regularly spouts their propaganda and talking points as fact.

Making nice with rightwingers is a smart career move. He obviously sees himself as next in line to host NBC’s once-vaunted “Meet the Press” on Sunday mornings. The show’s reputation has been so compromised by Tim Russert – another journo with a liberal background who is overweaningly pliable to the right – that replacing Russert with Matthews would be, at best, a lateral move.

Whatever happens with MTP, Chris Matthews’ GOP butt-kissing has already won him at least one accolade. Media Matters, the left’s leading news-bias watchdog organization, has named him “Misinformer of the Year.” (Last year’s winner was Bill O’Reilly.)

There is a thorough list of his mis-statements at Media Matters, but here are Matthews’ recent statements about Dear Leader that could have been scripted by Karl Rove:

[…]

In His Own Words: Pat Robertson Is the Poster Child for Conservative Lies & Corruption

Jon Ponder

You know, I don’t know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It’s a whole lot cheaper than starting a war, and I don’t think any oil shipments will stop… We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don’t need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It’s a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with.

– Pat Robertson, Wednesday, August 24, 2005

I didn’t say “assassination.” I said our special forces should “take him out.” “Take him out” could be a number of things including kidnapping.

– Pat Robertson, Thursday, August 25, 2005

Is it right to call for assassination? No, and I apologize for that statement. I spoke in frustration that we should accommodate the man who thinks the U.S. is out to kill him.

– Pat Robertson, later on Thursday, August 25, 2005

Breslin — Florida Not Big Enough for Me and Jeb

Buck Banks

At a recent writers workshop in Fort Lauderdale, “Sun-Sentinel” sports writer Michael Mayo asked legendary columnist and rabble-rouser Jimmy Breslin, 75, whether he was ready to retire to Florida:

After his talk, I asked if he’d ever become a Floridian, like so many other New Yorkers. He let out a curse and said, “You think I could move to this place, with this idiot of a governor?”