I’m not even talking about the separation of church and state. I’m talking about the fact that virtually every preacher man I know personally is hardly any different than these unscrupulous, bought-and-paid-for religious”personalities”, such as Kenneth Copeland and Creflo Dollar.
But even harder to understand are the people who support these rich assholes who thwart their riches and would rather spend a fortune fighting against paying taxes, etc, than EVER helping poor, needy people. Or support them no matter how much they endorse war and death over peace and life.
Amanda from Think Progress has a great post up about the subject and here is the RealClearPolitics Huckabee article that discusses Mike’s penchant for living a high life in the same elitist model that Kenneth does.
In Arkansas, Mr. Huckabee was investigated by the state ethics committee at least 14 times. Most of the complaints centered on what appears to be a serial disregard for government rules about gifts and outside financial compensation. He reported $112,000 worth of gifts in one year alone, nearly double his $67,000 salary.
$67,000? WHAT? The man’s got suits that cost that much.
Five of the 14 investigations resulted in admonishments: Two for failing to report gifts (one was later overturned), the other three for some $80,000 that Mr. Huckabee and his wife received but failed to initially report. One of these admonishments involved a $23,500 payment to Mr. Huckabee from an opaque organization called Action America that he helped found in 1994 while lieutenant governor, and that was designed to coordinate his speeches and supplement his income.
Mr. Huckabee caused an uproar when he used a $60,000 account intended to maintain the governor’s mansion for personal expenses, including restaurant meals, dry cleaning and boat supplies. He also faced a lawsuit over his assertion that $70,000 worth of furniture donated to the mansion was his to keep. Sprinkled among all this are complaints about the misuse of state planes and campaign funds, mistakes on financial disclosure forms, and fights over documents related to ethics investigations.
Any one of these episodes individually may appear penny ante, but they add up to a disturbing pattern. People I’ve spoken with who worked with Mr. Huckabee in Arkansas dispute the idea that he is “corrupt.” They instead ascribe his ethical mishaps to a “blind spot” rooted in his beginnings as a Baptist minister and a Southern culture of gift-giving; they suggest he never made the mental transition to public office.
I am a 47 year old southern white man who has made his career off of integrity and honor. I sell equipment to factories to improve productivity and can tell you that if you ever lie to your customer in this business, you will not have that customer very long.
But, my pursuit of these characteristics isn’t just from work… I believe in them in all walks of life. I believe that one should not lie in order to deceive (I have lied to save harming a person’s feelings, etc). Am I free from guilt? No, I am not. I have lied, but I do my best NOT to, for I know that one leads to many more that cannot be kept up. Eventually the truth comes out.
But with Mr Bush and his administration (or even many ReTHUGlicans, in general) not only do they not care if caught in a lie, they intentionally use them to deceive and manipulate people into doing and agreeing to things they want accomplished. It doesn’t seem to matter that we have a multitude of video clippings showing the audacity of the lies or the internet which can so easily track their bogus story lines.
But as an honorable man, when I am lied to, I know that the person cannot be trusted who is doing the lying. When that person lies repeatedly, I simply assume that everyone else can see this for what it is and will shun the person and his desires.
But southern people aren’t doing that with Bushilicious, as I would suspect. Why?
Why do I feel like I am one of the few around here that gets pissed off when someone lies to me?
The Washington Post shares some really good news… Defense Contractors wonder what the hubbub is regarding a “recession”:
Global markets may be writhing and the U.S. economy teetering at the brink of recession, but for many of the nation’s largest defense firms, the good times keep going.
Most have posted big earnings gains in recent years, largely because of record Pentagon spending on weapons programs and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And with the government, not consumers, as their biggest customers, defense contractors appear poised to weather any economic downturn that may lie ahead.
“We are about as far removed from the credit risk and those sorts of matters as you can imagine,” said Bruce L. Tanner, chief financial officer at Lockheed Martin of Bethesda. “We feel sort of insulated.”
But fear not, as most Americans become even more stupid while the missile builders get richer, they aren’t worried a bit…
“Every indication we have is that there will be a continued growth of reasonable proportions in the basic budget,” he said.
Excellent video at Campaign for Americas Future website evaluating the lies Bush told us in the 2007 SOTU address.
I added a chart in this post back in November that focuses on a similar point made in the video… that we spend so much money on the military, so far out of perspective to the rest of the world, that it is ludicrous for anyone to think it is necessary. That chart compared 2007 Military spending to research and development investment into alternative energy sources (it is even worse in that case).
I ask the question here, how could so many rednecks like myself be fooled by these obvious shysters. Maybe the fact that 50% goes to defense and only 6% goes to education. Duh?
Watch the video and tell me you can trust a single word out of his lying ass. If you still trust this monster, you are a danger to our society.
Raw Story has a CBS video regarding the vending machines in California. I wonder how many people will actually sign up to use it, since it is still illegal?
This makes so much sense, but I would like to know the price of a product and how much is sold for that amount.
Medicinal marijuana to be available in vending machines
Nick Langewis and David Edwards Published: Friday January 25, 2008Herbal Nutrition Center of Los Angeles is set to make an unusual move in the sale of medicine.
The PVM (”prescription vending machine”) will dispense medications, including Cannabis, also known as marijuana. A strict verification process is required to obtain an access card to operate the machine, including a face-to-face consultation and fingerprinting.
Cannabis can be legally recommended for medical reasons in California under Proposition 215 (or the Compassionate Use Act of 1996), though use, therapeutic or otherwise, remains outlawed on a federal level.
Federal law, notably, was used as the rationale in a recent 5-2 ruling by the California Supreme Court, with which an injured veteran, and all workers in the state, took a hit to their employment rights. The Court determined that an employer has the right to fire an employee that tests positive for THC, the active ingredient in the Cannabis plant (more commonly referred to by media and government agencies as “the drug”), even if the substance entered the subject’s bloodstream through legal means…
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