George Carlin: It’s Bad for You

One of the most successful outspoken critics of not just the administration, but the system that runs it and the bullshit myths they feed us to keep it running, George Carlin, has moved on. No wait, that’s not right for George; he’s dead. He’s a dead fuck. That’s better. He’s gone on to the digital pergatory of Youtube. He’ll be on many desktops for many many years. He has been a personal favorite of my since I can remember. Enjoy his work. “It’s all bullshit folks. Bullshit runs this nation; it’s the glue that binds us together. Land of the Free, Home of the Brave. All men are equal.The American Dream. Justice is blind. The press is free. Your vote counts. The good guys win. The police are on your side. God is watching you. Your standard of living will never decline.” and I would like to add “The audacity of Hope”, “Change you CAN believe in.”.

“Nobody questions things in this country anymore. Nobody.” and we are paying for it. Why? because we are stupid and complacent cowards, that’s why. We all talk about the Founding Fathers; they would be ashamed.

Part 1

I Hate Zoos

I used to take pictures all the time. I never got into digital cameras, but I just recently got one, and to be honest, I like it. I was surprised he let me get this close. I hate zoos. (Click on the picture to see the larger, full size version.)

Being Poor

(I found this and I wanted you to see it in light of the steep increase in fuel costs and the release of the unemployment numbers. I’m doing a little project in a very wealthy section of Tampa, and the condos down there are starting to look like a ghost town. This war on the middle class is going to get worse before it gets better. So in light of all of that, I wanted you to see this.)

by John at Whatever, here.

Being poor is knowing exactly how much everything costs.

Being poor is getting angry at your kids for asking for all the crap they see on TV.

Being poor is having to keep buying $800 cars because they’re what you can afford, and then having the cars break down on you, because there’s not an $800 car in America that’s worth a damn.

Being poor is hoping the toothache goes away.

Morning (repost)

 (This month marks the 1 year anniversary of American Everyman. I thought it would be nice to look back over the year and post a few of my earlier articles because: A. it’s easier than writing new stuff and B. back then I wasn’t as jaded and horrified at what this country has become.)

by Scott Creighton (Morning was first published here, on July 18th 2007)

 It’s 10:00 am on the day the Senate failed to advance legislation to set a time table for withdrawal of US Troops from Iraq, because the Republican minority held their breath and stomped their feet and filibustered all night to keep the American People’s wishes from being done. Because the President knows better than we do, what should be done there. Oh, I’m sorry; I mean “the Generals on the ground” do.

This just a week after the President commuted Scooter’s well deserved jail time and one day after the ABC documentary about soldiers in Iraq facing gut wrenching conditions and basically pleading with Congress to bring them home.

This on the same day that Harriet Miers’ seat sat empty as she contemptuously ignored a subpoena to testify before Congress. Three days after the White House claimed Executive Privilege as the reason to restrict access to documents that would shed light on the friendly fire incident that took a dedicated soldiers life.

Goodbye Harvey. You Will Be Missed.

Tim Conway and Harvey Corman. What a wonderful life.

Sen. Kennedy on “The Surge”

Jan 2007 Sen. Kennedy

 

Savage Capitalism’s Latest Victims

(with foreclosures up 75%, we can expect to see lots more of this, as congress banters back and forth about how to help the lending companies…)

SANTA BARBARA, California (CNN) — Barbara Harvey climbs into the back of her small Honda sport utility vehicle and snuggles with her two golden retrievers, her head nestled on a pillow propped against the driver’s seat.

A former loan processor, the 67-year-old mother of three grown children said she never thought she’d spend her golden years sleeping in her car in a parking lot.

“This is my bed, my dogs,” she said. “This is my life in this car right now.”

Harvey was forced into homelessness earlier this year after being laid off. She said that three-quarters of her income went to paying rent in Santa Barbara, where the median house in the scenic, oceanfront city costs more than $1 million. She lost her condo two months ago and had little savings as backup.

Open Letter to ADS about Posting Taibbi’s Insulting Article

Matt Taibbi wrote a horribly insulting article about those of us who want a real investigation into the events of 9/11. His article contains no references and no footnotes. in fact, it contains no facts at all; simply strawman arguments and gross generalizations. Believe it or not, the majority of his argument rests in a fictional discussion he makes up pertaining to what he supposes the “planning” meeting to sound like. That is his argument. Really.

David Swanson of After Downing Streethas posted this from AlterNet. Taibbi’s article even resorts to calling people looking for the truth “idiots” several times. Name calling, believe it or not. And Swanson posted it on his main site. That is highly insulting and so I wrote this comment on the ADS site in an effort to get Swanson to denounce Taibbi’s obvious attempt at “yellow journalism”. 

Racist Uses His Free Speech Right; Let’s Use Ours

Mike Norman of Marietta, Georgia owns a bar called Mulligan’s. He and his clientele have been selling shirts that portray the vilest and most despicable kind of racist rhetoric that I have seen in my life.

But, of course, he has the right to do so in America. But then again, so do we.

For those of you that are interested:

Mulligans

698 Roswell St Se
Marietta, GA 30060 Map

(770) 499-1137

***update*** LOOK WHAT SIMON FOUND Mulligans YELP listing! Thanks Simon.

  http://www.yelp.com/biz/mulligans-marietta 

This is Mike Norman, the life-time conservative owner of the bar and designer of the shirts, who stands by his shirts saying:

 ”It’s not racist. It just looks like him.”

That’s your free speech right buddy. Now it’s our turn.

See the CNN video here.

On several sites, there seems to be a question as to what kind of sheltered life I have led if this is the most offensive act of racism I have seen.

let’s put this into perspective, shall we?

We live in a country that exploited slaves for centuries.

We just recently passed a civil rights act to protect the freedoms of black people and minorities.

Now, young people, of all races, and older people who lived through the riots and the segregation of the ’50’s and ’60’s, all share a moment in history: the nomination of a African American to be the Democratic Candidate for the office of President of the United States of America. The highest office in the land.

And this man, for whatever reason, takes the time to design, contract, ship, open, and displays shirts that reflect the absolute worst possible racist slander he could imagine, toward that very same history making candidate.

It is his fear of a black president that created this shirt. His kind of racist bigotry should never be ignored. We must expose it where we find it and call it out for what it is. Lest we forget the lesson of Harold Ford and that now famous tv ad his rivals ran.

(alright, I took “white trash” out of the title. I am related to one of the commenters who didn’t like it.)

The Bet

by Scott Creighton

During a roadtrip from New Orleans to a jobsite just outside Baton Rouge, I and a client of mine, had occasion to talk about many things. He is an educated business owner, too caught up in business and the business of life to delve into researching all the news that The News isn’t reporting anymore.

That’s the domain of people like me, I suppose. My lot in life as reward for a lifetime of ill-conceived transgressions.