Angry Americans
President Obama breaks a move. A policy change on Friday will allow "dreamers" to legally remain in the country for two years while the battle on immigration continues. The President had to deal with the usual lack of civility from the right that he has encountered since taking office.
Neil Munro from The Daily Caller, a hack job news service run by Tucker Carlson, decided to interrupt the president's speech because of his false self-image of importance. The President kindly scolded the child and continued with his prepared remarks.
As Mr. Munro makes it apparent; it is very easy to be a clown.
Starting off with Representative Wilson's "you lie!" statement during the President's State of the Union address, and continuing with that bastion of conservatism, the Supreme Court's Alito's "not true" comment; the lack of respect continues.
Elizabeth Warren is the center of a manufactured controversy. As the polls show her climbing in the Massachusetts senate race, the opposition gets frantic. If you were to watch FOX - and I do not recommend anyone ever watching FOX - the "Cherokee" statement would be the only piece of information you would need to make up your mind on who gets your vote.
Unfortunately, Warren stated that
she had Cherokee blood in her family line, and conservatives want her to prove it. This is the big news of course, anything that actually has to do with running the country is off limits to right wing media.
Massachusetts voters do not care, but conservatives will keep drilling her on the topic until it becomes the central issue regarding her electability.
Can you blame them though? Warren is a liberal rock star right now. A populist message that voters embrace; she is a strong democrat that we should all support right now. This senate race will be one of the most expensive this year; big money has a need to stop her.
These lines say it all:
“The Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, said, ‘Corporations are people.’ No, Mitt, corporations are not people,” she said to cheers. “People have hearts. They have kids. They get jobs. They get sick, they laugh, they cry, they dance, they live and they die. Learn the difference.”
Democrats need her strength, support this woman.
State Scum
My home state of Michigan with it's Tea Party Governor and state legislature have decided to bring the war on women home. At one time I stopped calling this a war, because in wars people die. I'm back to calling it a war, because women will die.
Michigan has been taken over by conservatives. The Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, House, Senate, Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court. Not good days for the state at all. Besides the implementation of non-democratic Emergency Financial Managers, the taxing of the poorest to pay for the tax cuts of the richest, the union busting and civil rights destroying tactics; we now must stop abortion at all costs.
State Representative Mike Shirkey has made this perfectly clear with his statement regarding the legislation; "Until we completely eliminate abortions in Michigan and completely defund Planned Parenthood, we have work to do."
Any questions?
Once again woman to the rescue. The
opposition started off with Representative Rashida Tlaib telling the GOP controlled House that the men there should stop having sex with women, they should find someone else to have it with. She also asked all women in Michigan to stop having sex. Representatives Lisa Brown and Barb Byrum were both banned from speaking on the House floor after the use of the words "vagina" and "vasectomy."
Planned Parenthood supporters descended on the capital in force. Yelling, "this is our house" and "we'll remember in November," they will not stop fighting.
House Speaker Jase Bolger stated that it is his job to maintain the decorum of the house. I guess vagina and vasectomy are new four letter words for conservatives. If you have the time and inclination, tweet "vagina" to @mihousegop; they are getting bombed.
Right to Life of Michigan helped write the current crop of bills that will basically make it illegal to have an abortion in the state.
This is democracy in action:
Silent Suicide
Global Warming, or what conservative strategist Frank Lutz managed to change to "Climate Change" so it didn't sound so bad, is to the best of our knowledge slowly destroying our planet. The Rio+20, the United Nation's Conference on Sustainable Development is under way.
It appears that the global demand for resources is fifty percent higher than the rate that nature can regenerate them. Does this not compute? We are reaching the point of no return. Politics and greed are more important than life. Our oceans are polluted, the planet is warming and species are disappearing; and the world does nothing. Drill for more oil, blow off mountaintops for coal, fracking for natural gas; hastening our demise appears to be the only goal.
Why we will not confront the problem is simple, there are forces keeping the discussion at bay. The Heartland Institute last May made it clear that those who worry about the science of climate change are left wing extremists. Santorum says climate change is not real, because plants like CO2. As far back as 2009, congress was told that global warming is not real. The biblical world view looks at the earth as being well designed, no reason to do anything. Then we have several climatologists who are not associated with big oil that deny there is a problem. There work has been discredited, but that isn't stopping them from creating confusion.
As a freethinking group, should atheists in general support the theories that have been accepted by the scientific community, or are we like much of the rest of the planet's population, apathetic?
Jehovah Jackasses
Apparently mormons have an extra
chromosome when it comes to American exceptionalism according to Senator Mike Lee of Utah. One can take comfort in the thought that if they do have that extra chromosome, it makes up for the lack of grey matter.
A religious discrimination suit against Taco Bell was recently settled for $27,000. A man who refused to cut his hair because of his religious beliefs was the center of the controversy. Apparently religious beliefs are more important than hair in your food.
The sacred hair battle continues in New York City where a man was cut by the police department. The gentleman, a Hasidic Jew, is the man behind the law suit. It worked for him in the army, he's giving it a shot now with the police department. The NYPD says that the gentleman was aware of the restrictions while in the Academy, so this appears to be a setup.
A Muslim in Washington D.C. is suing over religious discrimination as well this month. He needs Fridays off to attend prayer services.
All of these stories are examples of an increasingly popular theme; religious people are being allowed to subvert society by imposing their personal religion on us all. This is how to gain a foothold in America that will be hard for secularists to regain. If we keep rolling over to the nonsense that theists are being picked on, we have lost the battle.
Entertain no doubts, this is a perversion of everything the U.S. once stood for.
Supreme Stupidity
A fairly new poll is out showing that the Supreme Court favorability is down to 44%. Only one in eight Americans think the justices decide cases on their merits and 75% of the respondents said that cases were decided on personal and political views.
I'll keep this short with just one thought. Why would Arizona remain so adamant about their immigration laws, or Florida fighting for the right to remove legal voters from the polls unless they know they have friends in the highest court of the land?
Conservatives are thumbing their noses at Obama's administration because they have a bought and paid for court.
Citizen's United, the soon to be heard ruling of the Affordable Care Act; this court could prove that citizens have no rights and only the powerful are allowed to participate in democracy.
Final Fixations
First off, happy made up holiday
to all the fathers out there. This edition of The Sunday Planet is being published early so I can keep my father-in-law company.
Here for your enjoyment, selected holidays in March:
March 3rd - If Pets Had Thumbs Day
March 5th - Multiple Personalities Day
March 9th - Panic Day
March 15th - Everything You Think Is Wrong Day
March 20th - Extraterrestrial Abductions Day
And a personal favorite:
March 26th - Make Up Your Own Holiday Day
From 31 Wacky Holidays in March.
