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Send in the clowns…

Posted on July 21, 2010 By

scaryclown

The only thing more pathetic than white folks whining about charges of racism is Christians whining about Muslims wanting to build a mosque.

And, very often, it’s the same whiners whining about both!

Grow up, people. You are not the only ones on this planet and you don’t have all the answers.

It never ceases to be amazing how white people react with such venom when anyone points out obvious racism.

Some redneck spits, “Obama plan: white slavery!”

Someone else points out the obvious.

Then some other redneck says, “Why that’s racism, accusing me of racism. You racist!”

Ha-ha-ha! It’s almost laughable, really…except it’s so sad.

The NAACP calls out the obvious racism of TeaParty chants and signs and messages and the teabaggers get their lily white noses outa joint and say, “it’s racist to call us racists.”

The next thing you know some right-wing kook with a blog and TV show puts out a video tape of a USDA official – who just oh so coincidentally happens to be African-American – and gets the NAACP all twisted up and playing defense.

By this time, the racists are demanding today’s equivalent of a lynching as sacrifice to the white power structure and the USDA official is fired.

Oh…but, gosh, who could have seen this coming? The racists edited the tape, told a big ol’ whopping bald-faced lie and now everyone is sorry and the USDA is taking everything back. Sorry. Our bad.

“They just want to stir up some trouble, it seems to me in my opinion,” said a humble Georgia white farmer of the right-wing attempts to seek retribution against African-American public servants.

“Stir up trouble.” That’s the age-old tactic for fighting back from a place of cowardice.

And racists are world-class cowards.

So are fundamentalist Christians and Bumper-Sticker ‘Murkins who get outa joint about Muslims wanting to build an Islamic Center in Manhattan, near the former site of the World Trade Towers and everyone goes postal. Sad.

Oh…but wait…this just in…

Maybe there IS something more pathetic than all that. It’s the Florida Legislature!

The Republican majority Legislature took less than an hour on Tuesday to tell former Republican Gov. Chain Gang Charlie Crist to take his proposed offshore oil drilling ban and stick down the Deepwater Horizon drill hole.

Crist, now an independent and running for the U.S. Senate, called the lawmakers to Tallahassee for the express purpose of drafting a constitutional amendment for Sunshine State voters that would have, if adopted on the ballot in November, placed a permanent ban on oil drilling in Florida waters.

No matter that over 70 percent of Florida voters favor an oil drilling ban, the Republican majority in the legislature was having nothing to do with impeding the ability of Big Oil to foul the coasts.

Well, that and the fact that oil barons gave legislators nearly $300,000 between January 2009 and March 2010…with an additional $185,000 to the Florida GOBP. (And, for the record, $77,000 to the Florida Democratic Party.)

Miffed that Crist continues to lead the U.S. Senate race even after they kicked him out of the GOBP, the Republicans in the legislature said the special session was “because of politics.” Imagine that.

Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, the leading Democratic candidate to replace Crist at the governor’s mansion called the legislature, “a complete failure.”

“Instead of action, the tone deaf Florida Legislature has been twiddling their thumbs,” she said, pointing out the lawmakers should have also addressed the severe economic hits taken by people and businesses in the Florida Panhandle because of the oil spill.

Fight back: use less oil! PACE is an answer.

Posted on June 11, 2010 By

Jacques Yves Cousteau was born 100 years ago today.

Imagine what he might say to us as he watches one of the world’s great oceans being destroyed by the greed and malfeasance of Big Oil…with the duplicity of a U.S. government bent on deregulation of large industries over the past 30 years.

We can all grab Vuvuzelas and make a big noise…

…OR…we can do something about it.

Floridians actually have now a remarkable new tool for actually doing something about the murder of the Gulf of Mexico.

Floridians can now greatly reduce the amount of energy used in homes and buildings. Depending on which estimates is to be believed, between 50 and 70 percent of all electricity is Florida is generated by burning fossil fuels, including and especially oil.

The Florida Legislature created a way for communities to band together to reduce energy use.

The Florida Legislature adopted in its 2010 session a new PACE initiative allowing Florida counties and cities to develop pools of money from which property owners can borrow to make energy efficient and hurricane-hardening improvements to homes and buildings.

PACE – Property Assessed Clean Energy – is an innovative national approach to public-private partnerships enabling local governments to inspire private property owners to reduce energy use while also creating jobs.

Here’s how PACE will work in Florida:

Local governments – counties, cities perhaps even entire regions as a whole – will create Energy Conservation Districts which will then be allowed under new state law to develop a pool of money from which property owners can borrow to make energy improvements on homes and buildings.

The PACE legislation also allows for hurricane-hardening measures to be installed with these funds.

The cost of these retrofits – the home improvement loans – will then be repaid as small additional payments on annual property tax bills. The loans will run with the property, be transferred to successive owners and be spread over 20 years.

The bottom line: PACE loans will not cost property owners any additional money and won’t put the local government further into debt.

Savings from reduced energy use will more than offset the cost of the home improvement loan while at the same time increasing the value of the property which, then, accrues to the benefit of the local government in the form of increased tax base.

PACE is modeled on traditional land-secured financing of improvements such as storm water utilities, road and sewer construction projects and other public improvement projects.

One of the differences, however, in the PACE initiative is that participation by property owners is completely volunteers. Property owners will sign up & enter into an agreement with the county before accepting the home improvement loan. They will pay only for improvements on the homes and buildings they own and the improvements must be permanently attached to the home (solar systems, for example, window/door treatments, wind turbines).

Loans to property owners are secured by statutorily authorized non-ad valorem special assessments; a tax parity lien on the property.

Because the PACE program is new and participation in it is voluntary, the Legislature sees unique funding opportunities for participating counties.

The Florida PACE legislation allows local governments to seek interim financing through a third-party lender – a bank or group of banks – which would float the county a line of credit to implement the project.

Once the number of loans and the value of loans reaches a certain threshold, the “warehoused” loans can then be bundled and sold on traditional bond markets.

PACE in Florida will give Floridians a way to fight back, to reduce the need for oil in the Sunshine State.

Utah renames itself State of Confusion

Posted on May 10, 2010 By

In a stunning reversal, zigging when everyone thought he would zag, President Obama today nominated the forcibly retired Sen. Bob Bennett, noted leftist from Utah, to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Naw…just kidding.

The SCOTUS nod goes to current U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan, noted socialist and prostitute according to right-wing extremists who also say they don’t like her haircut, a little too short for their liking.

The political scene is really bonking for lack of adequate nutrition.

Here’s the good news about Kagan: no one, but no one, doubts her brilliance and precision as a thinker and writer, analyzer of exquisite detail and thoughtful narrative. The Senate’s already voted to confirm her as solicitor general.

Okay, okay…but will she vote to overturn Roe v. Wade…that’s what’s important to the extremists.

Answer: Oh, hell no! Now, y’all go on about the bidness of eating your own and leave the Supreme Court to the grown ups.

But they won’t. They’ll try anything they can think of to try to destroy Kagan, all reasons having nothing to do with her potential as a supreme court justice.

They’ve already called her a prostitute. How much lower can they sink?

Writing in the National Review, no less, some hack named Ed Whelan questioned Kagan’s principles with the famous G.B. Shaw quote, “We’ve already established what you are, ma’am. Now we’re just haggling over the price.”

After being roundly criticized, the Whelan character backtracked a bit to explain everyone uses this quote – you know, to call people whores.

And speaking of solid principles and loyalty, the extremists ate one of their own heroes over the weekend.

The good people of the Utah GOPeeparty, meeting in convention, ousted three-term U.S. Senator Bob Bennett because he isn’t pure enough. It’s rumored he actually knows and has spoken with African Americans, Latin Americans and, perhaps, women!

You see, the Utah GOPers get together in a convention to decide which Republican Utah will elect to national offices such as the U.S. Senate. This year’s back room deal turned into a teabagger convention and out went Sen. Bennett.

The reason? Just not conservative enough. Heck, he voted in favor of President Bush bail-out of big banks and talked to Democrats about health care reform.

In the addled brains of teabaggers this simply will not do. I mean this guy was the employer of Howard Hunt when he and G. Gordon Liddy broke into the Watergate to bug the Democrats…and he’s no longer conservative enough for the baggers. Whew!!

Hmmm…Mitt Romney, Karl Rove and Newt Gingrich all like him. They are so out of step with the baggers.

And finally, from the “Chicks and ducks and geese better scurry” file, it seems farm animals are not safe in Florida.

Despite repeated attempts, the Florida Legislature failed to outlaw animal diddlin’ in the Sunshine State; an issue sure to raise its ugly head in the race for the U.S. Senate.

Earth Day at 40.

Posted on April 21, 2010 By

Earth Day 2010.

Forty years since the first Earth Day in 1970. Have we saved the planet, yet?

More importantly, do we still have time to save the planet? Will we still be battling to save the planet on Earth Day 2050? Will it be too late by then?

When Senator Gaylord Nelson, Democrat of Wisconsin, conceived the idea for Earth Day in 1970, he immediately stretched across the aisle and Capitol to enlist the aid of U.S. Rep. Pete McCloskey, Republican of California. Together – and with a team of talented, bright students – they put environmentalism and conservation square on the table of public opinion and action.

Hard to imagine such bi-partisan activism today. When Earth Day begin 40 years ago, only a very few scientists understood the dangers we faced because of pollution warming the globe’s atmosphere. Most of us simply thought pollution was nasty and ugly and harmful to our lungs and drinking water.

While some today continue to deny the inconvenient truth that our planet is warming and the environmental consequences that will follow, many others are working to slow or halt it.

The United States has pledged to cut carbon emissions by 17 percent by 2020.

The Florida Legislature will soon adopt what might be the best way – so far – to actually accomplish that goal.

Improving on a concept originated in California, Florida lawmakers appears on track to adopt a revised and better funded version of the Property Assessed Clean Energy – or PACE – initiative.

PACE will offer job creation through retrofits to existing homes and buildings that will, when completed, reduce energy use, reduce our dependence on foreign oil and reduce our production of greenhouse gases.

In short, Florida will soon have the opportunity – at no additional cost – to implement local, community-wide programs to create jobs, reduce our energy use and do its part to help the United States meet its obligation to the world to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Here’s how it will work:

Local governments – counties, cities perhaps even entire regions – will create Energy Conservation Districts which will then be allowed under new state law to develop a pool of money from which property owners can borrow to make energy improvements on homes and buildings.

The cost of these retrofits – the home improvement loans – will then be repaid as small additional payments on annual property tax bills. The loans will run with the property, be transferred to successive owners and be spread over 20 years.

The bottom line: PACE loans will not cost property owners any additional money and won’t put the local government further into debt.

Savings from reduced energy use will more than offset the cost of the home improvement loan while at the same time increasing the value of the property which, then, accrues to the benefit of the local government in the form of increased tax base.

PACE is modeled on traditional land-secured financing of improvements such as storm water utilities, road and sewer construction projects and other public improvement projects.

One of the differences, however, in the PACE initiative is that participation by property owners is completely volunteers. Property owners will sign up & enter into an agreement with the county before accepting the home improvement loan. They will pay only for improvements on the homes and buildings they own and the improvements must be permanently attached to the home (solar systems, for example, window/door treatments, wind turbines).

Local governments, providing property owners with the upfront costs, makes it all happen.

Maybe on Earth Day 2050, we’ll look back and realized this was the turning point that staved off the tipping point.

…Old times there are not forgotten…

Posted on April 9, 2010 By

BREAKING NEWS: Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has just signed a proclamation recognizing April as KKK Month in the state for lovers.

“It should help tourism,” said the governor, as he boarded a private jet bound for New Orleans and the Southern Republican Leadership Conference.  “And the sale of white sheets at the Wal-Mart.”

Immediately upon his announcement, a cannon was fired from the back porch (next to the refrigerator) of Fort Sumter, South Carolina and legislatures across the south said, “hell no, we ain’t gonna have no stinkin’ health care in THIS state, by damn, ain’t gonna be no slaves to the fed’rul guv’munt.”

Actually, the move kinda stalled in Florida where, oops, one relatively astute committee chairman realized a proposed amendment to the Florida Constitution prohibiting the federal exercise of health care reform would probably be…well, unconstitutional.

Legislators said the state constitution is probably not the place to tell the federal government what to do and someone sent a message to Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell reminding him that didn’t work out so well when they tried it nearly 150 years ago.

“We’ll find other ways to keep people from getting adequate health care in Florida,” said one legislator.

Meanwhile, over in Nawlins, the leaders of the Southern Republicans are gathering to hear, most likely, more of their heroes talk of how bad things are in ‘Murka with a socialist president and how good things were when Bush was president and Hurricane Katrina slammed into Nawlins in 2005.

Sarah Palin will be there and may, yet again, speak of how President Obama’s scaled back nuclear aggression policy is like a kid on the playground who says, “punch me in the face and I’m not going to retaliate – go ahead and do what you want to with me.”

Flying back from Prague, where he just signed a new START Treaty with Russian, President Obama suggested to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos he’s probably not going to take advice on nuclear policy from Palin.

“Sarah Palin’s not much of an expert on nuclear issues,” said the President.

But the Southern Republicans should have a good time, nonetheless, and it’s a fine week to remember the Confederacy and all it entailed while calling President Obama the most radical president of all time, as did Eye-of-the-Newt Gingrich only yesterday. Gee, I thought that title belonged to Lincoln.

They can even get their shoes shined and, maybe…just maybe…some of the local folks will sing ‘em a song or two…just to show how happy they are!

But back in Washington, 5-term Democratic Ohio Congressman Bart Stupak is expected to announce his retirement today.

You’ll remember Congressman Stupak, of course, who made sure the reproductive health of women was a casualty of the health care reform debate.

Stupak is as Stupak does.

Maybe while they’re in Louisiana, the Southern Republicans can persuade the porn star running there for the U.S. Senate to move to Ohio.