Weekend Update - Game On Edition

(There's good news for all of us sports fans this morning, and when I say "sports fans," I mean Oregon football fans.  Some of us merely survive the months between the last game of the season and the first game of the next season.  We mope around the house wearing our "DUCKS RULE!" sweatshirts and our Rose Bowl hats and our BCS Championship socks, and go about our dreary dreary everyday existence, feigning interest in random basketball games and the occasional late season baseball -yawn- game, but we really don't care one whit about those things.  And then finally, every year about this time, the Oregon Duck football team puts on what is known as "The Spring Game."  Oh, it's just the Ducks playing themselves, offense against defense, but we get to watch and see the new recruits and see the competition between the new quarterbacks and running backs, etc. Can't really root for any side, but sweet jesus it's DUCK FOOTBALL!  I'll be watching the festivities on the computer on ESPN3.com, but the Boy is actually at the game with his cousin.  Go ... um ... Ducks!  But I digress ...)

• Well Newt's all but dropped out of the race, and the only competition Willard Mittney the Rominator has at this point is someone named Ron Paul who apparently never has really mattered anyway.  Therefore, as Arthur so eloquently put it the other day, "it's game on."  You can tell it's started when you see an Obama ad hosted by Bill Clinton who quotes George Bush.  Bygawd this is going to be fun.
• It's sad to see that the Rominator is still terribly out of touch with the rest of America (those who are not millionaires).  At a “lecture” for students at Otterbein University in Ohio Friday, Romney told students that a good way to start a business and "go for it" is to borrow money from their parents. "Say Dad, could I borrow $20,000 to put up a lemonade stand?"
• Most of us with half a brain are aware that the GOP believe women should remember their place in society and should stay there.  The Republicans say we've accused them of conducting a "War On Women," and they're offended.  (awww)  In a combative speech on the Senate floor last Thursday, Sen. John McCain called a Democrats’ accusations that the GOP is waging a war on women “phony,” “outlandish,” and a distraction.”  Well, let's look at this a little closer with this Caught On Tape article.
• I really don't want to go here, but I feel I really have to.  Remember when Newt Gingrich suggested eliminating child labor laws?  Put the little bastards to work as janitors or something? Now, his biggest supporter, Sarah Palin, is claiming that child labor laws are making America fail. Okay, so you're probably not surprised, right?  The real reason I want you to check out this article is the enormous picture of Sarah Palin included in it.  It's frightening beyond words.  Warning: Have the children leave the room before you click on this.
• According to the Romney campaign, apparently made up of guys wearing thin ties and white socks, President Obama has abandoned Czechoslovakia (a country that hasn’t existed since 1993) and also said Obama wasn’t strong enough to prevent “the Soviets” from “pushing into the Arctic.”  Pardon me but I've been led to believe the cold war ended sometime in the 80's.

Here's To The Waldos

(As of today my son is now a teenager.  He's been going through a "growing spurt" of sorts lately, getting taller by the hour, and appears to be made up of skinny arms and legs of gigantic proportion, held together with elbows and knees.  As I've mentioned before, he's a "420" kid, having been born on April 20th, which has no effect on him now, but probably will later on in life.  He will be kidded.  A thirteen year old is easy to buy for, birthday-wise, because he'll give you a list of stuff he wants.  Pretty handy I guess, except when you price the things he wants.  He gave me a list last week and after searching the Internet for price comparisons I found that if I were to get him everything he wanted it would cost me over $400.  I may be a retired senior citizen, but I'm not senile or feeble-minded.  Turning thirteen is one thing, winning the Price Is Right showcase is another.  We'll be giving him his presents when he gets home from school this afternoon, and he will have to do with what we've gotten him, and he will love us for it.  Becoming an official teenager is not easy my friends, as we all know.  But I digress ... )

• Look, I have nothing against average Americans owning firearms.  I believe gun ownership in America is a fundamental right of our Constitution.  But what the hell is going on at the NRA?  These people seem to hate President Obama with a dangerous fervor.  This article reporting on Alexander Zaitchik's observations at the St. Louis annual NRA convention is shocking and disgusting.   "What do Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, and Barack Obama have in common?"  Answer: "Nothing, yet."  There is a cancer growing in this country.  And it's apparently the racist factor of the National Rifle Association.
• And you know I could go the rest of my life without mentioning Ted Nugent and be perfectly happy with that decision, but when this washed-up rocker starts vomiting his opinions in a public forum someone should say something.  So why hasn't the media said much about this?  You'd think even Faux News would want to distance themselves from this raging maniac.  And why hasn't Mitt Romney rejected Nugent's endorsement?  What gives?  Oh, and by the way, the Secret Service wants to talk with Ted about his mouth.  This could get interesting.
• And then we've got Ann Coulter.  Godhelpus we've got Ann Coulter.  "Ann Coulter says that gun control laws are inherently racist and that the solution to incidents like the shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin is more 'negroes with guns.'"  Ann Coulter reminds me of one of my ex-wives.  Or someone else's ex-wife.  Good grief.
• Update on Rush Limbaugh:  El Rushit wants the "outrage to stop," but the National Organization for Women has announced a campaign to hit the big fat drug addict in the wallet by pressuring local businesses and radio stations to stop doing business with him.  "On Monday, Rush Limbaugh tried to minimize the movement against him by blaming Bill Maher for the war on women, while he claimed that the outrage against him was phony."  What?  Bill Maher?  Oh please.
• If you haven't heard about this, allow me to introduce ALEC to you.  It goes something like this:  Giant corporations give United States congressmen and senators marching orders to vote in the proper direction to enhance the corporations.  Simple, right?  Well we all suspected it was happening, and it's been happening for quite a while, and it's finally been exposed.  We'll start HERE, but you'll be hearing more about this later. 
• Happy 4/20 everyone.  And don't forget to toast The Waldos.

Just Gotta Love The Crazy

(More bad news to report.  Sorry, gotta be done.  Rick (spell check: sanitarium?)) Santorum has finally decided to drop out of the Republican race for the GOP presidential nomination.  That's right, our man whose sweater vests defined an entire generation of Christian fundamentalist weirdos (you be the judge, is he or is he not cross-eyed?) and whose name became synonymous with anal lubricant discharge has abandoned us, leaving us with nothing but a robotic mormonesk stiff-collared nimrod named Mitt.  But wait! you cry.  There IS another!  The fun still continues.  There IS Mitt, but there is also NEWT!  Newt, the little huge-headed womanizer, the Mayor of the Moon, the grand wizard who, lurking behind the curtain, still cajoles us to click the heels of our ruby slippers and find ourselves back in Kansas or some other imaginary place once again, safe and sound. In our Conservative Book of Now WTF, Newt Gingrich is a whole new chapter of Crazy.  And we beseech him to hang in there, Baby.  Because try as we may, paint it any color you want, play any rockandroll, hiphop, techno, grandfunk philharmonic music you want, Mitt Romney all by himself is as interesting to watch as  a JT Wentworth commercial. And I'm being nice here, mind you.  So we join in the chorus of millions of the rest of us when we say "Hang In There, Newt!")

• And only because we love it so, allow us to speak more of the Crazy-That-Is-Called-GOP.  Apparently missing the grand old witch-hunting days when some paranoid lawmakers sought out Communists behind every woodpile, Republican Rep. Allen West said he believes 75-plus House Democrats are members of the Communist Party.  Ooh.  Evil Dooers, by thunder.  What flavor of kool-aid do Conservatives have to drink in order to become documented members of the GOP?  Whatever it is, keep it away from the children.  "Not even Joe McCarthy would have said anything so stupid ..." says Barney Frank.
• State Department of the United States of America admits that it is actively monitoring Peter Van Buren’s blogs, Tweets and Facebook updates that he posts during his private time on his personal home computer.  Mr. Van Buren is a Foreign Service officer for the State Department, and it seems he wrote a book critical of U.S. reconstruction projects in Iraq, We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People. There's a lot more to this story, read about it here.
• And then came the headline that surprised exactly no one and delighted a great many, even as it openly terrified countless thousands across the deep south and also Utah and Kansas and pretty much the entire GOP. The poor dears. "Homophobes might be secretly attracted to people of the same sex."  Mark Morford reports on the biggest "Well Duh!" statements I've seen in a while.
• We were alarmed yesterday to see that the Gingrich campaign was having trouble with bouncing checks. That is, checks they're writing have insufficient funds in the account to cover the amount of money written on the check.  I'm sure that's basically how the whole thing works.  But what the hell, the check was for a $500 filing fee to get Newt's name on the ballot in Utah.  Mormanutah.  Mittutah. Where Mitt Romney is from.  (...) HANG IN THERE NEWT!  WE LOVE YA!
• We've mentioned this before on Bad Hat, about FOX News viewers being generally less informed about reality than the rest of us.  Well, we gotta add this to it: "Authoritarian people have a stronger emotional need for an outlet like Fox, where they can find affirmation and escape factual challenges to their beliefs."  Cris Mooney reports on The Science of Fox News: Why It's Viewers Are the Most Misinformed. 

It's Wacky Wednesday

(Big Fat Drug Addict Rush Limbaugh has apparently expanded his disgusting personal attacks from college students to college professors.  And this particular one is hitting really close to home.  Seems that University of Oregon sociology professor Kari Norgaard has drawn the ire of Limbaugh and his Dittoheaded bloggers because of an inaccurate description of Norgaard's work that appeared in a UO news release.  It said:  “Resistance at individual and societal levels must be recognized and treated before real action can be taken to effectively address threats facing the planet from human-­caused contributions to climate change.”  Ms. Norgaard was in London last week, attending a meeting of scientists on the subject of climate change, and when she returned she found hundreds of hateful messages on her university E-mail account.  Limbaugh's bloggers spread an untrue story around the Internet that Norgaard had called climate change skeptics "sick" or "mentally ill" and in need of "psychoactive drugs."  (Come to think of it, that kinda fits El Rushit's description.)  Here's what Limbaugh himself said about Norgaard: Click Here. The really obscene thing about some of these anti-climate change fanatics, are the death threats, the obscenity-laced messages sent to scientists and activists alike, threatening to kill family members, wives, husbands, children, and pets.  What is it with these people?  What on Earth are they so afraid of?  Let's just digress at this point ...)

• I fancy myself a fairly decent American citizen, I served my country in the military, never been arrested, contribute to charity, the whole bit.  But the Supreme Court of the United States makes me clench what's left of my teeth in disgust.  Can anyone tell me when this group of people got so politicized?  And if Antonin Scalia is so smart, why does he compare buying health care with buying broccoli?  Maureen Dowd discusses this very topic in "Men In Black."
• Well, there goes a little more of the innocence that is childhood. Apparently the latest Hollywood adventure film concerns turning Santa, the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, etc. into Superheroes.  But Mark Morford is on the story and gives us this report. "The Day They Killed the Easter Bunny." 
• In order to be a more "fair and balanced" blog, I give you The Republican Governor's defense of Pink Slime, without further comment.
• I got up the other day, turned on the Today Show as usual, went to get my bowl of cereal ready, and when I came back there was that Palin woman doing co-hosting.  Damned near burned my retina.  While I quickly changed the channel to reruns of "Frasier," I hear that our dear Sarah is still coping with the same old truth-telling problems.
• Hey, betcha didn't know this one:  Barak Obama threatened Chelsea Clinton's life to keep Bill and Hillary "quiet" about his eligibility to run for President (i.e., his "birth certificate").  Oh yeah Baby.  It's stories like this one that keeps Fox News watchers among the most ignorant people in the nation.  And they just keep on coming.