George Will: High Paid Idiot

The majority of Americans are better off now than they were in 2000/2001?

Really?

How about my fellow rednecks? Are you all better of financially? Even if you bring home more money, are you still better off?

George Will, the right-wing financial “genius” says that you are simply misinformed. That you don’t really know any better.

So let me ask you, are you the out-of-touch one, or is it Willy?

Breaking The Myth: Mississippi Is NOT a reTHUGlican State

B’Man: Excellent Essay posted by Rickey Cole at CottonMouth:

Mississippi is a Competitive Two-Party State: An Essay

Sunday, June 15

Travis Childers’ recent election proves that Mississippi is not some inpenetrable Republican bastion. When we have good candidates who have unified, enthusiastic party support and adequate funding, Democrats are competitive in our state.

Consider the following facts about our US House delegations over the last several decades:

CD-1

In 1994, upon the retirement of the legendary Democrat Jamie Whitten (who served 53 years) Republican Roger Wicker was elected, the first Republican since Reconstruction to represent CD 1. Travis Childers reclaimed the seat for Democrats last month in the special election made necessary by Wicker’s appointment to the US Senate.

CD-2

In 1982, Democratic incumbent David Bowen retired. He was succeeded by Republican Webb Franklin, who was re-elected in 1984. Democrat Mike Espy defeated Frankin in 1986 and served in the seat until his appointment as US Secretary of Agriculture in 1993. Since 1993, CD 2 has been represented by Democrat Bennie Thompson.

CD-3

In 1964, Republican Prentiss Walker defeated long-time incumbent 3rd District Congressman Democrat Arthur Winstead. Walker was the first Republican to be elected to the House from Mississippi since reconstruction. In 1966, Walker gave up his House seat to run for the US Senate and Democrat Sonny Montgomery won the 3rd CD seat (and held it until his retirement in 1996). Represented by Republican Chip Pickering since 1996, the seat is now open due to retirement.

CD-4 (combined with CD 3 in 2002)

In 1972, Thad Cochran was elected the first Republican in this seat since Reconstruction. In 1978, Cochran ran for the Senate and vacated his House seat in CD 4. His former staffer, Jon Hinson was elected as a Republican in 1978, reelected in 1980, and resigned in a sex scandal in 1981. Wayne Dowdy reclaimed the seat for Democrats in 1981, and the 4th CD was Democratic until Mike Parker switched parties in November 1995. Democrat Ronnie Shows reclaimed CD 4 for us in 1998 and held the seat until it was eliminated by redistricting in 2002.

CD 5 (renumbered 4 in 2002)

In 1972, Republican Trent Lott was the first of his party in the seat since Reconstruction. He served in the House from 1972 through 1988, when he moved to the Senate. Republican Larkin Smith won the seat in November 1988, but was killed in a plane crash during the first year of his term. Democrat Gene Taylor won the seat in the 1989 special election and has held it since.

So, since the passage of the Voting Rights Act and the emergence of a two-party system in our state, all of our US House seats have gone Republican, and have subsequently been retaken by Democrats. The reality is clear: when good candidates are properly funded (Dowdy 1981, Espy 1986, Taylor 1989, Shows 1998, Childers 2008), Democrats have proven that we can win open US House seats in Mississippi. Clearly, Mississippi is a two-party state.

- Rickey Cole

Grandmother Proud To Have Lived Long Enough To See First Viable Female Candidate Torn Apart

PEORIA, IL—Seventy-six-year-old grandmother Anita Graney told reporters Monday that she was “overwhelmed with pride” for having lived to see the first viable female presidential candidate in the nation’s history so successfully run into the ground by vicious media attacks and hubristic, arrogant miscalculations. “Hillary [Clinton] showed America that a woman can be politically destroyed just as completely and heartbreakingly as any man,” said Graney, a lifelong feminist. “What an amazing example for today’s young women who aspire to fail spectacularly at the highest levels.” Graney expressed hope that one of her granddaughters might someday be the first woman to get utterly eviscerated in a nationwide general election.

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Monday Stat Day

Good Morning! Thought I would start your day with a few stats! Have a great day– and a great week!

Facts about Americans

- 55.2% will let someone else come in the bathroom while they’re using the toilet. 39% of us peek in our host’s bathroom cabinet. 17% have been caught by the host.
- 81.3% would tell an acquaintance to zip his pants.
- 71.6% of us eavesdrop.
- 37% claim to know how to use all the features on their VCR.
- 53% prefer ATM machines over tellers.
- 20% of us have played in a band at one time in our life.
- 40% of us have had music lessons.
- 66% of women and 59% of men have used a mix to cook and taken credit for doing it from scratch.
- 21% of us don’t make our bed daily. 5% of us never do.
- 40% of women have hurled footwear at a man.
- 3 out of 4 of us store our dollar bills in rigid order with singles leading up to higher denominations.
- 50% admit they regularly sneak food into movie theaters to avoid the high prices of snack foods.
- 82% believe in an afterlife.
- 45% believe in ghosts.
- Only 55 percent of all Americans know that the sun is a star.
- 29% of us are virgins when we marry.
- 10% of us switch tags in the store to pay less for an item.
- How far would you go for $10 million? 25% would abandon their friends, family, and church. 7% would murder.
- 69% eat the cake before the frosting.
- When nobody else is around, 47% drink straight from the carton.

Goodbye AT&T

Quick note about AT&T and Bellsouth. I was a long time customer of their’s, even after the purchase. The service was always very good and I could not really complain about much of anything.

However, since becoming aware of their compliance to Bush’s request to give over American citizen’s information and bowed to the tactics of criminals to make a buck; and considering that our government is owned by them and people (leadership, supposedly) like Steny Hoyer and others are doing anything and everything to allow these bastards to get off scott-free from their law-breaking, I have but one solution.

Cancel all accounts and feed them no more of my money. If more people would do this (there are others to choose from), then they would get the picture, anyway.

I had one of the greatest sense of accomplishments when I called a few minutes ago and canceled the account that I kept temporarily to avoid customer confusion. The operator asked why and I was happy to tell her. I also asked that she make sure she noted my reasoning. She did.

I explained that I did not blame her, but I do hold her company accountable and if this is the only way, I hope that she can find another job, working for someone with integrity and the American spirit in mind. Not crooks and liars.

I ask you all to join me, if possible.

Fuck AT&T and the Bush Horse they rode in on…

Jen’s Update: More Chemo and Porta-Cath

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Chemo Starting at Vandy This Week

Entry by TRH from TN

Greetings Jen Nation!

Well, a less than healthy 3-week break is all my sister is granted this round.

She’s heading to Vandy tomorrow to receive a “porta-cath”, which is basically a needle they can leave in her arm for the duration of the Avastin chemo treatment.

She’ll then get her first dose on Wednesday morning, then hopefully we can bring her home.

From what I hear she’s had more bad days recently than good. Balance and walking are fairly poor.

She’s just disgusted with poisoning her body for seemingly no benefit. We hope the chemo gives her some relief and she’s healthy enough to go to and enjoy the Lake over July 4.

Thanks for your prayers and support — ours are always with you! — Love, TRH

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Free-Trade Agreements, Weaker Dollar Helped Mexico Car Industry

The Financial Times reports that “the face of Mexico’s car industry” is “efficient, technologically advanced, and increasingly oriented to export.” According to Thomas Karig, a vice president at Volkswagen in Mexico, the automaker’s “decision in 1997 to base world-wide production of the New Beetle at the plant has born fruit,” as “[s]ales of the model have exceeded forecasts. Mexico is very competitive,” he said. Over the past two decades, “output of new cars [in Mexico] has increased fourfold, reaching 1,416,665 units in 2007,” and “[i]nvestment has flooded into the sector.” Also automakers “are sourcing more and more of their components from Mexican suppliers.” The Times notes that “NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) helped make the Mexican industry more internationally focused,” while “two other developments have given extra momentum to exports:” Mexico’s entrance “into a string of free-trade agreements with other trading blocs,” and “the decline of the dollar against the euro and yen.”

B’Man: Well, good for Mexico. So, rednecks, you wonder where your job went? As our dollar goes down and these “free-trade” agreements are thrust upon us, it is the American worker and his lifestyle that will suffer.

You are losing your shit, while the Big Corporations are making even more money. Will you people wake up and elect someone that is looking after YOU, dammit? Obama will feed the creature. Look for those that will help feed YOU.

If Mexico wants to build cars, then invent one and build it. Compete with the rest. Keep our jobs here. Stop NAFTA, CAFTA and all AFTA’s from here on out. Fuck free trade. We lose. Period.

NBA Game 6 2002 Just as Corrupt as the 2008 Presidential Election

B’Man: Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader is on the basketball court talking about the NBA Game 6 2002 Western Conference Finals and how it compares to the 2008 presidential election.

June 14, 2008
www.votenader.org
www.officialnaderstore.com

Good morning.

Yesterday, Ralph Nader took the NBA and the political process to court.

Watch the video here.

Onward

The Nader Team

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