Drug tests for driver's licenses

For years now, I've been seeing the "MAKING DRUG TEST MANDATORY FOR WELFARE" meme pop up on Facebook. It has 1.5 million fans... that's a lot for something on Facebook, so obviously people support the idea and it gained enough traction to be made into law in Florida.

Of course, it's a laughable failure, but in our current political climate, that doesn't matter. Much like the 2012 GOP candidates, the concept is failing upward and Ohio is expected to institute a similar law.

I get the idea behind it, we've demonized poor people so much, it's easy to get people to rally against them, even if a small portion of them are truly the "lazy, drug-addled drain on society" that they're painted as. Never mind the fact that it's demonstrably a waste of money, once people have their minds made up on something like this, the details don't matter, they "won." The only way these kind of "kick 'em when they're down" laws go away is when they start to affect the lives of everyday folk.

So it's time to start drug testing for driver's licenses! Aren't we all tired of drug addicts and alcoholics killing innocent people on the road, costing taxpayer money in terms of police, rescue workers and court costs? Why should we continue to allow dangerous criminals to drive on our taxpayer-funded roads?

Oh sure, we're assuming that everyone behind the wheel is a criminal, but a driver's license is a privilege, not a right. If you have nothing to hide, you shouldn't mind going into the DMV, waiting in that excruciatingly long line, dropping your pants in front of a low-paid bureaucrat and pissing in a cup every time you get your license renewed. You don't want to do that? Well I suppose we could just take your blood instead. What's a little humiliation in the interest of saving money and lives?

I promise you, the minute some overpaid, coked-up, midlife-crisis douchebag in a Porsche has to pee in front of a grumpy DMV employee, these "drug test for (x)" laws will dry up pretty fucking quick.

Ground Zero Mosque... that isn't a mosque or on Ground Zero

Earlier today, I was in a discussion with someone who supports the Park51 project, but thought the folks in charge didn't do a good job of getting in front of the story and explaining that it wasn't actually a Mosque, but a place to play racquetball. That might be the case if Fox News wasn't covering the story. It wouldn't have mattered if they had five years of hype, calling it the "Totally Non-Religious Happy Place Where There's Free Ice Cream & Hand Jobs," the minute Fox News and the rest of the right-wing media started calling it the "Ground Zero Mosque," it would've still been the Ground Zero Mosque. You have to realize these cretins shape the narrative because they have ignorant viewers and listeners that believe everything they're told. Then said ignorant listeners and viewers get outraged, start calling newspapers, radio and TV stations and demand to know why the liberal media isn't covering the Terror Mosque of Doom. And then of course the media covers it because they're pussies and are afraid of looking too liberal, so they have to report on the outrage, then the outrage blends with the story, and that becomes the perceived reality.

The right-wing is frighteningly organized, it's how Glenn Beck can get 80,000 morons to show up in DC for no reason other than to listen to him compare himself to MLK and Jesus, so he can sell books and Goldline to these same ignorant, outraged fucktards. If Sir Glenn of Moronistan and Boss Limbaugh say it is so, then it is so, it doesn't matter how much truth you throw in their face. And then the average joe, who's just trying to provide for his family and survive his soul-crushing work day, comes home and turns on the nightly news and gets a five minute version of the story that focuses on the message created by the wingnuts, as demonstrated in the above paragraph. He doesn't have time to fact check this bullshit, he just absorbs it, goes to bed, and tries to make it through another day, not thinking about how much the right wing is pissing on his face and telling him it's rain.

The media game is rigged, and the right-wing will win it every time. Even when they're down and nothing is going their way, like post-Bush administration, they always find a way to bounce back. And when the Democrats are utterly decimated and humiliated in November, you'll see exactly what I mean.

Enemy of intelligence

So yesterday, you may have heard about some idiot on Facebook posting a poll called "Should Obama be killed?" Pretty serious stuff, but it's the internet, right? People post crazy stuff all the time and it's not fair to make assumptions about many people based on the actions of one. But what happens when an elected official does something similar, just less blatant?

Here's congressman Trent Franks (R-AZ), calling the President of the United States an "enemy of humanity."



What kind of message does that send to the lunatics from the teabagging crowd? You know the people with their signs like "We came unarmed... this time!" and "Obama's Plan = White Slavery," how do you think this kind of statement resonates with them? This goes beyond the right-wing's efforts to make the President seem illegitimate by saying things like he's "exotic" or "different," this is a government official telling people that the President of the United States is an enemy to our very existence.

Think I'm overreacting? What about the census worker who was found bound, gagged and hanged with the word "FED" carved into his chest last week? This, just a month or so after congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-MN) claimed that filling out the census could lead to Americans being sent to internment camps, much like we did with Japanese-Americans during World War II.

Trent Franks is walking on very dangerous ground here. This is worse than the birth certificate numbskulls and makes "YOU LIE!" seem tame in comparison, Congressman Franks isn't saying Barack Obama is unfit for office, he's saying he's unfit for life. This isn't just a political disagreement, Franks is dehumanizing our democratically elected President, illustrating him as an evil monster. When you start using language like that, you're essentially telling people that it would be okay to assassinate the President. You're giving them the idea that they would be the hero, saving the "real Americans" from the threat of an enemy to humanity. With rhetoric like this, and the non-stop comparisons to Hitler, all it's going to take is one unbalanced lunatic to hear Trent Franks' words and create a very dangerous situation. Franks should resign immediately or be removed from office by the people of Arizona, language like this cannot be tolerated.

Liberal Media vs. Conservative Media

I know I talk about the myth of a liberal media on a fairly regular basis. It's not that there aren't any liberals in the media, but they're generally interested in presenting the truth. Contrary to popular (stupid) belief, there's not a concentrated effort within the collective media to promote left-wing agendas. However, there is a concentrated effort in the conservative media to promote right-wing agendas, except they have no interest in the truth. The right-wing media has not use for facts because the truth usually contradicts their agenda, so instead they rely on loud noises, smears and flat-out insanity.

Let's contrast and compare! First, here's Bill Moyers, the epitome of the "liberal media," and a man that Bill O'Reilly constantly rails against and sends his stalker producer to harass:

Bill Maher interviews Bill Moyers

Now just watch those clips with Maher and Moyers and understand that this is the "liberal media" - intelligent, well-spoken, fair and coherent conversation.

And now here's the conservative media:

Glenn Beck pretends to light someone on fire

Glenn Beck boils "fake" frog on air

Glenn Beck claims the half-white president "has a deep-seated hatred for white people"

Glenn Beck jokes about poisoning the Speaker of the House

Glenn Beck says he's "thinking about killing" Michael Moore

Glenn Beck agrees that we need Osama bin Laden to "detonate a major weapon" on US soil

This is the best the right-wing media can do, folks. Lies, threats, hypocrisy, fear, racism, and ludicrous stunts. Hell, it's not just their media, it's the right-wing in general.

Why so serious?

Okay, I need a break. You'd be surprised, but tackling the insanity of the right-wing is exhausting when there's just so much of it. So today, I've decided to take on an easy target, this whole fad of Photoshopping Obama as The Joker:


Honestly, I don't really have a problem with this. I don't find it offensive, it's not like when the wingnuts try to make him look like Hitler, and making politicians look like cartoon villains is actually pretty funny:


See? Hilarious! But Jokerbama? I think these posters are good evidence that right-wingers aren't particularly deep and not a lot of thought goes into their outrage. It's not surprising, the Republican Party has gotten people to vote against their own self-interests for decades, just by drumming up irrelevant issues like guns and religion. Yeah, I said it, the right-wing voters cling to guns and religion.

Anyway, why The Joker? Joker is the exact opposite of everything the right-wing claims Obama is doing. Right now, the current lunacy coming from the teabaggers is that Obama is some kind of socialist, communist, tyrannical fascist dictator, that's going to tax you into oblivion and take over American business. Obviously that's absurd, but I'll humor them for a moment... how is that at all related to The Joker? Let's get nerdy!

The Joker has no interest in power, control or money, his only desire is absolute chaos. Yeah, he steals money, but it's only to achieve a goal, he doesn't care about wealth. Go watch The Dark Knight again, once he has all the money from every criminal organization in Gotham City, he simply sets it ablaze! The Joker wants a world that's as crazy as him, he's a terrorist more in line with extreme Libertarianism, so shouldn't we be painting smiles on Ron Paul?

But according to the wingnuts, Obama is now a socialist, communist, fascist, tyrant who wants the country to descend into anarchy. Huh? This is why I have such a hard time taking these people seriously, because they obviously don't know what they're talking about. It's bad enough they're claiming Obama is both a socialist and a fascist, but a tyrannical anarchist? In the words of The Joker: HAhAHahAHAHaHAHahaHAhA!

If you want to dip into Batman's rogues gallery to smear President Obama, may I suggest someone more in line with your ridiculous claims? How about The Penguin? A wealthy, high-society elitist who gains wealth and power through less than legal means. Oh dammit, I just described the Republican Party.

Intellectual Truancy

It's a sad state of affairs when the president speaking to children about staying in school becomes politicized by the right-wing smear machine. I understand why the LOUD NOISES crowd is encouraging parents to keep their kids home from school tomorrow, without the stupid and ignorant, the GOP would lose 90% of their votes and talk radio would lose 100% of its listeners. But what is truly saddening, is that the "liberal media" (lol) is buying into this nonsense (again) and presenting it as legitimate news (again).

After reading the speech (here's the transcript), it's painfully obvious that there is absolutely no controversy here. I don't consider "stay in school" to be controversial, I suppose if you're Sarah Palin, who presided over the state with the highest dropout rate in the country, you could get a little upset. Obviously, this is probably the least controversial thing any president could do, especially considering that George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan all did it, but its only "politicizing education" when the black Democrat does it. Hmmm. By the way, when Reagan spoke to school children, he went off on a tangent about tax rates, but no politics there, right? It's the Gipper!

All this business about "brainwashing" and "Hitler Youth" (yeah, wingnuts are playing the Hitler card again), it's all just another part of the right-wing's concentrated effort to make Obama seem illegitimate. They have zero respect for the man or the office he holds. I'd like to think that it has to do with something other than his race, but I honestly can't come up with anything else.

And before any wingnut jumps in with their list of idiocy, let me stop them right now: Obama's not that liberal, the economy sucked long before he was elected, our spending has been out of control for 25 years (at least now we're spending it domestically instead of in George W. Bush's sandbox), and we're nowhere near "socialism," no matter how much they scream it.

The country is no different than it was on January 19th, so to throw this kind of temper tantrum over something as non-controversial as this, leads me to believe their problems are entirely with the man himself. Not his policies, not his message, just the fact that they can't wrap their feeble little brains around the idea of a leader named Barack Hussein Obama. To hate a President so much that you can't even allow your children to hear him promote a message of "stay in school and work hard"? Yeah, that certainly strikes at something a bit more personal than the friggin' deficit.

Teabaggers: The First Generation

Our current political climate isn't the first time the extreme right-wing used the threat of communism to stop America's progression:


And here we are today:


Poor, pitiful, angry white men... they've always had it so rough.

Frustration

It's been two weeks since I've written anything, mainly because our current political climate has devolved into mind-numbing stupidity. Glenn Beck said the president has a "deep-seated hatred for white people," and joked about poisoning the Speaker of the House (all while his advertisers took their money and ran). Senator Chuck Grassley suggested that folks turn to Jesus Christ for "end of life counseling." And Sarah Palin emerged from the unemployment line to insinuate that President Obama wants to murder her Down Syndrome baby.

Ah yes, Citizen Avon Lady and her mythical "death panels," all this just a couple weeks after ordering the media to "quit making stuff up." In the latest round of Palin exploiting her children for political gain, she sold the idea that if we had a government-run health care system, the handicapped, the sick and the elderly will have the proverbial plug pulled on them. Of course, this is 100% false, but the "liberal media" (lol), in their quest to always look "objective," took the bait and actually reported on this nonsense.

It really is infuriating to watch a serious political debate get hijacked by the LOUD NOISES crowd. People like Sarah Palin have nothing to add to the discussion, so they play to their base of ignorant, uninformed numbskulls to make people scared of health care reform. This is true, someone actually stood up in one of these infamous town hall scream-a-thons and said "KEEP YOUR DAMN GOVERNMENT HANDS OFF MY MEDICARE!" This is the type of idiot that Sarah Palin is talking to. Now that may make me sound like one of those elitist lefties, but here's the deal: if you actually believe that "death panels" will be a part of health care reform, you don't get to talk. You clearly have no idea what's going on and you will add nothing to the discussion, so shut up and actually read something not from redstate.com or Sarah Palin's Facebook page.

We've let loudmouth morons like Beck, Palin, Limbaugh, Grassley and the residents of Wingnuttia dictate the direction of the health care debate. Because they began frothing at the mouth, the end of life consultations have been removed from the health care bill. That's right, the same people who called for federal interference in the Terri Schiavo debacle don't want you to have access to a consultation about a living will. That's all the "death panels" are, compensating doctors for talking to their patients about an optional living will. So in the unfortunate event that you or a loved one are unable to make a decision about treatment, your wishes will be carried out.

I have it on good authority that Sarah Palin's next Facebook note will be about how you shouldn't be an organ donor, because it's really just a government conspiracy to harvest your organs! Seriously though, the elimination of the end of life provisions is a very dangerous precedent. The spineless cowards in the Democratic Party have once again bent to the will of the lunatic fringe on the ultra far-right. By not standing their ground on this, their fillibuster-proof majority is worthless, all it takes is yelling and screaming from people who have no clue what they're talking about to shut down a bill. That's the Democratic Party I know, blowing the lead in the bottom of the 9th with two outs and no one on base.

I'm afraid we have to amputate

After having this charge leveled at me numerous times in post-9/11 America, I have to ask it in reverse, do the Republicans hate America? Honestly, I don't think that's true, they certainly love their version of America: polluted, paved and full of pipelines. No, in reality, I think it's more accurate to say that the Republican Party hates Americans.

See, they like their Americans like they like America, polluted. They're comfortable with the fact that the nation is full of people who are fat and stupid. They certainly don't have any plans to fix health care and if it weren't for stupid people, they'd have no party leaders. In case you missed it, a RNC memo came out this week detailing how the Republicans should kill health care reform and "break" Obama. This is how they view the world folks, you are not important; your well-being, the well-being of your children, it's irrelevant to them. Your health, your life, it's a commodity, a business, and as long as they have any say in the matter (as well as those "Blue Dog" Democrats), that's what it will continue to be. All that matters to today's Republican Party is money and votes, and if that means they have to stand in the way of America's progress to get those things, then that's okay.

Sounds harsh, but take a look at their reasoning behind opposing Universal Health Care:

"Oh it'll cost too much!"
Yeah, never mind that taxpayers already pay more health costs than any other nation, yet we're the only modernized nation without some form of universal health care.

"Quality of care will drop!"
The WHO ranks us 37th in the world in terms of overall care, right between Costa Rica and Slovenia. In terms of life expectancy, we rank 45th, just beating out Cyprus, but below Bermuda. Where do we rank on infant mortality? 32nd. Yeah, we're doing a bang-up job with quality of care.

"There will be an government bureaucrat between you and your doctor!"
As opposed to the insurance company bureaucrat between you and your doctor now? A company stooge whose job it is to keep their costs down, even if it comes at the expense of your health.

"You'll wait forever for treatment!"
Because normally you just fly right through the emergency room and are out of there in no time! As for appointments, I can't even get a goddamn dentist appointment within the next six months.

"The government can't run anything right!"
Yeah, because we still have Republicans. When your party runs on a platform of government being inefficient, maybe you shouldn't be running for positions in government. If we got rid of these roadblocks, we might actually get some work done. And that's really what it comes down to, if you want health care reform, it's time to rid our government of the Republican Party. Like a malignant tumor, we need to surgically remove them with our votes every election cycle.


*PS - bow to my AWESOME MS Paint skills!!!

"Liberal Media" Strikes Again!

Take a look at this picture of Sarah Palin, soon to be former governor of Alaska. The biggest loss from that news is that I won't get to call her "Governor Avon Lady" anymore, but according to Time Magazine, I guess I should start calling her "The Renegade." Yeah, that pesky "liberal media" is at it again, tearing down poor Sarah Palin by giving her all sorts of press, taking photos of her looking all nifty on a pier and giving her a super cool moniker like "Renegade." Lorenzo Lamas' career is spinning in its grave.

How does Webster's Dictionary define the term "renegade?"

an individual who rejects lawful or conventional behavior

Well, I guess considering her numerous ethics complaints and the fact that she's out of her goddamn mind, maybe Time is onto something. But that's the literal definition, the media is portraying this as some sort of brilliant scheme that's prepping her for the 2012 election, they're even saying she's taking "the road less traveled," like she's the subject of a friggin' Robert Frost poem. Trust me, Quitty McGee ain't that deep. "Renegade" implies some sort of badass trait, something that sets her apart from the pack, puh-lease.

Sarah Palin is not a renegade, she's not all "mavericky," she's just another Republican. Someone tried to tell me the other day that she's the "new flavor" of politics... apparently the only flavor that person is familiar with is mushrooms because you'd have to be high to believe it. Sarah Palin is plain old Republican vanilla with a couple colorful sprinkles on top, she's the culmination of everything that's sucked about the Republican Party since Nixon. Take your pick: ethically corrupt, moral superiority, extreme arrogance, shallow, greedy, condescending, out of touch, privacy-invading, anti-intellectual, anti-science, anti-civil liberties, pro-war, and most important of all, a hypocrite. Sarah Palin takes all the worst qualities of the Republican Party and rolls it into one winking package.

Yes, she's worse than Bush. Say what you will about W, but "quitter" would never enter the discussion. After all the memos that have been released, I honestly have a bit of sympathy for Bush these days. Sure, he's still the worst president ever, but he just seems so gullible and naive, there's almost this innocent quality about him. I feel like W was a decent human being who thought he was doing good, but was surrounded by cretins like Cheney, Rumsfeld, Gonzalez, etc.

Palin, on the other hand, is all of Bush's worst qualities, mixed with the political ambition of Karl Rove and all the other criminals. She's dumb as a rock (apologies to rocks), a Jesus™ freak, and someone who thinks with her gut rather than her pea-sized brained like Bush; but then she's also a master manipulator, vindictive and just plain nasty like ol' Turd Blossom.

Renegade? Hardly. This woman is the GOP's Frankenstein.

FOX News: US Needs another terrorist attack.

Absolutely disgusting:



Why does Glenn Beck hate America? And FOX News is just as guilty by giving him a platform to agree with this disgusting rhetoric. Sponsors should pull their advertising from FOX and Glenn Beck should be fired... this goes beyond your typical idiot right-wing fear/hate mongering, this is calling for an attack on the United States of America simply because your guy didn't win an election.

It's time for right-wingers to grow up and accept the fact that sometimes you lose, but that's not an excuse to say the only way to fix it is for people to die. Seriously, this is the kind of lunacy usually reserved for whoever is behind the conspiracy on this season of 24. But of course, we all know Republicans get most of their policies from whatever Jack Bauer is up to. How anyone can take these scumbags seriously is beyond me.

Dick.

Okay, I've tried controlling my anger, but I can't take it anymore: Dick Cheney... shut the hell up. I really don't like throwing around things like this, but he may very well be the worst person who has ever served in any kind of public office. I don't even know if I can call him a person, he is walking evil. And the media must stop treating his every word as if it has any meaning or relevance to our national dialogue. It's bad enough that President Obama continues to move to the right (and he was already in the center to begin with), but now the media gives Cheney a platform to push the nation even further to the land of insanity.

Now I could just end this blog there and call it a day, but I'm sure some wingnut will barge in and say something to the effect of "why do you liberals hate dissent? Dick Cheney is just voicing his opinion, why do you want to take away his free speech?!" or something equally stupid, so allow me to elaborate.

Dick Cheney is in no position to offer his opinion on anything. Sure, he can mutter whatever he wants from his undisclosed location, but for the media to give this man attention is like asking Richard Nixon about Jimmy Carter's ethics. The Cheney Administration (since it's becoming more and more clear that it was not the Bush Administration) systematically wrecked this country on just about every level. They killed our economy, they ruined our reputation with our allies, they sent 5000 brave men and women to die for nothing in Iraq, and yes, they made us less safe. Furthermore, when it comes to issues of national security, everything that Dick Cheney ever said over the course of his "vice" presidency was demonstrated to be 100% wrong:

"There's a link between Iraq and al-Qaeda"
"Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction"
"The war will be over in six weeks... six months, tops"
"The war will pay for itself"
"We'll be greeted as liberators"
"Bush kept us safe"
"Waterboarding isn't torture"
"Waterboarding saved lives"
"Ending waterboarding makes America less safe"

Wrong, Wrong, Wrong, Wrong, Wrong, Wrong, Wrong, Wrong, Wrong.

Plus the dozens more I can't remember off the top of my head. On the issue of torture, all of the information that we gained from those who were waterboarded came before they were tortured. The only reason these men were subjected to the "enhanced interrogation" methods was to create a link between Iraq and al-Qaeda. Yes, the Vice President of the United States authorized torture to falsify evidence in order to mislead the American people to go along with the Iraq War. Imagine a police officer planting evidence on a suspect, then multiply it by the 5000 lives that were lost in Iraq... that blood is on Cheney's hands.

Between the torture and the outing of a CIA agent for political gain, Dick Cheney doesn't belong on television, he belongs in a prison cell. That's the only reason I can imagine why we've seen him more in the last two months than we have in the last eight years, he's trying to keep himself out of jail. If he becomes a vocal opponent of the current president, any investigation into his war crimes will appear to be politically-motivated and Washington will turn into a bigger circus than it already is. Way to go, Dick... politicizing the Justice Department even when you're out of office, that takes skill.

It's obvious that Dick has no other real motivations behind this other than to save his own skin. If it were strictly out of concern for his country, he would've ran for president; of course he would've been demolished since he has the lowest approval ratings of just about any individual politician in the history of the nation, but if he's THAT concerned, he should've went for it. If Bush-era policies truly made America more safe, it would've been Cheney's duty to the country to attempt to continue them. But no, he's just fine going on all the talk shows, smearing legitimate war heroes like Colin Powell (how many deferments did you get, Dick?) and continuing the fear mongering that plagued this nation since the day after 9/11. The American people have rejected the politics of fear and the politics of the worst administration in the history of this nation, it's time the media do the same.

Sinking to new lows

Gay marriage has been legalized in five states: Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont and Maine; New York and New Hamsphire could be added to the list very soon. So here we are, 10% of the states in the union recognize same-sex marriage and society has not collapsed onto itself. Straight marriages aren't threatened, the "family unit" has not come unraveled and the only difference seems to be that gay people are enjoying (or will soon be enjoying) the same rights as everyone else. That is of course, if you don't pay attention to the right-wing, who have lost their collective shit. Take a look:



Watching that video makes me literally nauseous, I'm not kidding. To paraphrase the video, when I have to listen to scumbags like Michael Savage, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, and Pat Robertson, I want to puke. These are despicable human beings and they should be ashamed of themselves (if they had shame) for spreading this kind of bigotry. "The Gay Gestapo?" Seriously? Yeah, God forbid someone call you out on your hate and intolerance, you phony moral crusaders. A few months back, I said that people who make these kind of arguments are subhuman and it's sad that I even need to discuss it now, but apparently the wingnuts aren't going to let it go. These smears, lies and distortions are all patently false and I'm going to put these disgusting arguments to rest right now.

Gay marriage is not going to lead to polygamy. As it stands right now, there is nothing illegal about a married man or woman bringing a third, fourth or fifteenth partner into their home. Many people live in open marriages and if they choose to do that, that is their own decision as consenting adults. But the state legally recognizing a plural marriage will lead to several complications that would not be present in a monogamous gay or straight marriage. We provide tax incentives to married couples, if the state recognized a plural marriage, those incentives would double with each additional spouse, which would create all kinds of tax issues. Welfare and immigration abuse would skyrocket; we already have enough problems with people getting married simply to secure immigration status, now imagine if someone could turn it into a business. A man could theoretically charge immigrants to marry him so they could become citizens of this country. Also, think of how messy divorce is in America when it's just two people, imagine a court wasting time, resources and taxpayer money trying to figure out paternity rights, division of property, alimony and inheritance for three, four, or ten partners... the cons far outweigh the pros for legalizing polygamy.

Gay marriage will not lead to man-child marriage for one simple reason, pedophilia is illegal. Children are not in any position to give legal consent, and even if they think they would want to marry an adult, that's why we have statutory rape laws in place. Gay marriage, just like straight marriage, will be between consenting adults.

Despite what Bill O'Reilly fantasizes, gay marriage will not lead to a man marrying a turtle, bestiality is illegal. Animals have none of the legal rights that humans do, they cannot enter into any legal contract, including marriage. Having sex with an animal is animal abuse, and much like with pedophilia, animals cannot give legal consent, so there's no legal argument to be made here.

These concerns being raised are completely insane and it further proves the bigotry of those who oppose gay marriage. Yes, if you use these arguments, you are a bigot, plain and simple. They're trying to equate homosexuality with various perversions and fetishes, to give the impression that there's something wrong with a gay person. There's nothing wrong with gay people, but I think the above video shows the only perverts in this debate are the twisted deviants who make these kind of arguments.

Spoiler alert: when you support bigotry, you'll be on the wrong side of history. Just like our treatment of the American Indian, our usage of slavery, suppression of women's rights, Jim Crow laws, and the internment of Japanese citizens during World War II, the fact that we even needed to have this debate about gay rights will be looked back on with shame and disgust. Gay marriage will be legal in this country, hopefully sooner than later, but it will happen... You can't stop social progress, those who try will always lose.

Poutrage

Unsurprisingly, today's talking point from the right-wing media is that comedian, Wanda Sykes went too far in her speech Saturday night at the White House Correspondent's Dinner. Sykes jabbed at Rush Limbaugh, mocking him for his comments about wanting Obama to fail, saying it was borderline treason, she hopes his kidneys fail and that he was supposed to be the 20th hijacker on 9/11, but was so strung out on Oxycontin that he missed his flight. The White House issued a statement today saying 9/11 was off-limits, which isn't surprising, but the conservatives still aren't letting it go, saying all her attacks on Rush were over the line... have these people never actually listened to Limbaugh? Sykes was tame! Let's take a look at more glaring hypocrisy from the right:

Jokingly calling Limbaugh treasonous was over the line, yet Ann Coulter is free to write a book called Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism and Rush is free to call the president a thug.

Sykes "crossed the line" with hoping for Limbaugh's kidneys to fail. I guess some people see it as poor taste to make light of an illness, but that didn't stop Rush Limbaugh from mocking Michael J. Fox for having Parkinson's Disease. Or Ted Kennedy's brain tumor.

And saying Rush Limbaugh was supposed to be the 20th hijacker is beyond the pale, but please ignore the fact that Rush just described Obama as "the follow-up to 9/11." Seriously... and that was just last month.

The fundamental difference here is that Wanda Sykes' performance was roast-style joking. Yes, it was edgy and controversial, but it was still comedy; I can't speak for Sykes, but I don't think she really wants Limbaugh's kidneys to fail and she obviously doesn't believe he was the 20th hijacker. Yet Rush Limbaugh says shit like this every single day and it only makes the news when it's really over the line.

All this uproar over Wanda Sykes is just more manufactured outrage from the masters of pretending to be offended. It's hilarious that the party that's always whining about left-wing "political correctness" is always the first to cry foul when someone hurts their wee little feelings. Here's the truth, the Republican Party is still pouting over the fact that they got their asses handed to them in the election, so they'll grasp at any straw they can to smear Democrats. Just look at the last few weeks of phony outrage: moaning about the unfair treatment of some beauty pageant bimbo that ran her mouth about gay marriage (even though she's clueless to the subject), attacking Obama's choice of mustard, and now Wanda Sykes making a couple mean jokes about someone who spews venom on a daily basis. Here's a tip to the right-wing smear machine, don't dish it out if you can't take it.

And just for some laughs at how absurd it is to defend Rush Limbaugh while calling Wanda Sykes harsh, here are some more of Rush's greatest hits:

"We are being told that we have to hope he succeeds, that we have to bend over, grab the ankles ... because his father was black."

"Liberal black politicians" envy Fidel Castro's "dictatorial power"

"Everybody knows it was the vacuum cleaner that liberated women more than the pill"

"I think the media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. They’re interested in black coaches and black quarterbacks doing well. I think there’s a little hope invested in [Donovan] McNabb and he got a lot of credit for the performance of his team that he really didn’t deserve."

Obama's Supreme Court pick will be "a teenage single mother, who's gay, is a lesbian, who's dirt poor, African-American, and disabled"

"AIDS was going to get really bad but it didn't"

For more on Rush Limbaugh's racism, sexism and generally stupidity, just check Media Matters.

Sean Hannity is great... for me to Poupon

I don't know if you've noticed, but occasionally Fox News is the funniest damn thing on television. Clearly they're not a real news network and their entire on-air staff is composed of the biggest nimrods in broadcast history, but it is a never-ending source of hilarity. If you can manage to watch the network without feeling a need to evacuate your bowels, did you catch Sean Hannity this week? Sean really skewered Barack Obama this time, he caught the president - on camera - ordering a hamburger... with spicy mustard! THE HORROR! Yes friends, this is what the Republican Party has reduced itself to... mocking Obama because of his "fancy burger."

But Vannity wasn't alone, Laura Ingraham joined the promotion of "Dijongate" (seriously), "I don't even like the way the man orders a hamburger. ... What kind of man orders a cheeseburger without ketchup but Dijon mustard?" Apparently, Ms. Ingraham is unaware of the fact that this is America, where you can get a hamburger made out of a fucking donut, there's nothing we WON'T put on a burger.

USA! USA! USA!

Never mind the fact that "spicy mustard" is available in every supermarket in the country and I guarantee you can get some form of it (or elitist Dijon) at the vast majority of restaurants in this country. Even All-American company, French's sells a spicy mustard. OMG! Commie Socialists have invaded our condiments! Next thing you know, Obama will be making us put Worcestershire sauce on our hot dogs!

Fox and the other clowns from the right-wing propaganda machine are free to waste their airtime however they see fit, but really, this? Look, I know you're desperate to make fun of the guy after Bush gave us so much ammunition over the years, but just accept it, Republicans aren't funny. It's okay, you're the curmudgeon party, you're not supposed to be funny. Relish in the fact that you're a bunch of angry old white men shouting at kids on the lawn, it's what Dick Cheney does! Embrace your inner Dick, it suits you.

RIP Radio

Once again, the good folks over at Media Matters have exposed the dangers of corporate media and why Rush Limbaugh is rolling in a new $400 million contract while his bosses at Clear Channel are bleeding cash at an alarming rate. Ironically enough, $400 million is the same amount of money Clear Channel is trying to save this year, they've already cut 12% of their workforce in the process. This is a subject that's near and dear to me since I was one of the many victims of the collapse of the radio industry in the last two years.

This isn't directly Rush Limbaugh's fault, though the environment he created in the radio industry probably didn't help. No, as much as I would love to blame the long lost son of Jabba the Hutt, it's not his fault that the people who sign his paychecks are complete idiots. Blame falls in the lap of corporate media, it's the same reason newspapers and television stations are dying off - the parent companies are just too damn big. Media consolidation and deregulation has put these companies in the same position as the financial giants "Too big," but radio isn't considered "too big to fail," so no bailout for them. And you know what? Good. Even though I'm no longer in my chosen profession, corporate radio needs to die.

And this is back when Clear Channel was actually making money.

When times were good, the heads of Clear Channel were arrogantly walking on sunshine, pushing a political agenda and continuing to make the industry smaller and smaller, but now that times are tough, they throw out a nine-figure contract to Limbaugh while axing thousands of people across the country. Does Limbaugh deserve a ton of money? Of course, but $400 million? Give me a break. I'm sure some conservative will come whining to me about wanting to "punish Limbaugh's success," but to that I ask, why do you want to keep others from succeeding?

Why are today's conservatives so worried about the guy making $400 million, but could seemingly care less about the guy making $40,000? What about the people left in the radio business who are taking paycuts and doing the job of three employees? What about the death of local content? What about live, in-studio broadcasters being replaced by Voice-Tracking so employers only have to pay someone for one hour of work instead of five?

There will never be another radio success story like Rush Limbaugh, not as long as companies like Clear Channel control the business, corporate radio can't afford a personality to get bigger than the station they're on. A handful of corporations took away the ability for minimum wage radio employees to become as successful as Rush thanks to the government allowing them to own the entire industry. Radio has become an environment where employees can't strive for more, they can't ask for a raise, they have no advantage in contract negotiations and they certainly can't threaten to take their work elsewhere. In today's radio industry, you're lucky to just be employed, so you're expected to shut up and do what you're told. How are you supposed to work your way up when the ladder is in quicksand?

100 Days of "Fair & Balanced"

Those far-left radicals at Media Matters are at it again with their video evidence. Damn liberals and their facts: