The Gangster Government

Just killing time here

2012-01-28T02:44:00.000-05:00

Spring is only a couple of months away and I for one can't wait for it. Outside of the warmer temperatures and the fact that I'm going to save hundreds of dollars on energy bills,I also get the chance to fix up a few things around the house. There are a couple of things here that really need to be fixed and I want to get it done as soon as it warms up. Of course this is going to take all types of new tools and materials. I don't know if I'll be using these particular accessories though.

Midnight Distraction

2012-01-26T00:17:00.000-05:00

Everyone that knows me,knows that I may have a pretty unnatural obsession with the news. Come to think of it I think about 60% of the news anchors and reporters in Detroit happen to follow me on twitter. There's even that one time I almost got one of my blogs turned into a news story. Of course there are things about the news that I love are bloopers. Whether it's the woman doing the traffic somehow totally forgetting how to pronounce the street she's reporting about. A horrendous slip of the tongue by an anchor or even a screw up by the graphics department. Of course from time to time there are those moments where a reporter has a total breakdown. Everyone get's angry but when a reporter does it,it's usually on camera and hilarious. I've seen this in person once in my life and I almost cried laughing from it. The video below is another one of those ridiculous moments. Click and enjoy.

Angry News Reporter Just Wants to Know What the !#%^ Deal Is - Watch More Funny Videos

Picture of the day

2012-01-24T16:10:00.002-05:00

Everyone saw the debate last night. It was basically comedy gold for me because I happen to find that type of stuff funny. Thanks to one of my awesome foreign friends on the fantastic site known as Twitter,I was able to see this awesome picture. I think it appropriately describes what the debate really was like for people who have grown tired of watching debate after debate filled with talking points,Newt Gingrich and his half smile/half scowl and Mitt Romney complaining about taxes being too high while paying a lower rate than people who make a lot less money than he makes. With that said stare at the picture and enjoy.

A taxing issue

2012-01-24T03:21:00.001-05:00

Taxes has been on everyone's mind recently. It could be the fact that so many of us somehow feel overtaxed while rich jerks keep getting tax cuts. It could be because it's tax return season. Or it even could be the fact that Mitt Romney's taxes have been a hot political issue during the last couple of weeks. In fact Newt Gingrich has kinda been making it his mission to get Mitt to do more than just sign autographs and actually release some tax forms. Now that those forms have been released we now know that Mitt paid about 1/3rd of what Newt paid in taxes and about half of what the president paid in taxes. Mitt's low tax rate and the fact that he actually wants it lowered makes him kinda the polar opposite of guys like Jay Z. On top of finding out that he has a lower tax rate than most Americans(this includes you),there are a few other interesting money issues floating around Mitt. Issues such as the fact that he had a Swiss bank account all the way up until the point he started to run for president. To read more about that,click on the classic picture of not George Romney.

Umm....what?

2012-01-23T18:26:00.000-05:00

I haven't been on or around a computer much today. In fact I didn't even check my email until almost 5pm and the only things in there were a few emails from friends,junk mail and an email from Chrysler telling me that that they weren't hiring me. Of course the point is, maybe I should have hopped online earlier than I did. I say this because when I did hop on here I happened to see that the world is still going completely insane. In today's latest bit of insanity we are trying to whitewash history. By whitewash I mean we're changing what's in textbooks again to feed into some sort of stupid political agenda that says that certain people weren't as mean to certain other people during the formative years of this country. First it was the Texas board of education changing the word slavery to "Atlantic triangular trade" thus insulting black people even more by reducing them from being compared to cattle to being compared with tea and spices. Now a group of tea partiers in Tennessee want to get rid of teaching about slavery in general in schools. This group of founding father enthusiasts want to make sure that we as a nation know exactly how great guys like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were and not mention the fact that we were less than kind to Native Americans and totally blank on that whole Jefferson having and sleeping with slaves thing. To read the entire list of batshit demands from that group,click on this entire sentence.

Cum on everybody

2012-01-22T02:58:00.000-05:00

I honestly was looking for a reason to post a classic Eminem song on this site and unfortunately I couldn't find one. Of course that is until I decided to take a look at Mixmaster Rick Santorum's campaign website. Apparently he's having a fundraiser on there. Of course while this is nothing new,the name is awesome. It happens to be called "conservatives unite moneybomb". What I'm basically saying is that Santorum is adding some cum to his frothy mixture. If you or any of your conservative friends want to cum with Rick,click on the photo below the song.

Just killing time here

2012-01-20T19:56:00.000-05:00

This is pretty much how Newt found Calista. Or it's how I imagined it happened. In fact it could be how he finds the replacement model. Either way,click on the photo and laugh.

Picture of the day

2012-01-18T21:54:00.001-05:00

Not too long ago,I posted about how you could get involved and help show congress the light on a couple of horribly written anti-piracy bills. What I failed to mention is that the bill was co-sponsored by Texas congressman Lamar Smith. This is important because as the picture below explains,he would actually be in violation of his own law if this bill passed. Look and be amazed by this fact. Oh and there's a long list of congressional members violating the Protect IP Act too.

SOPA Opera

2012-01-18T21:15:00.000-05:00

If you've been on the internet at all today you may have noticed many big websites shutting down in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act. This includes Wikipedia,Reddit and dozens of others. Of course they aren't the only ones who are upset at this well intentioned but badly written and broad law. In fact you have everyone from normal everyday people,to members of the video game industry and members of congress who oppose it. Of course not every member of congress opposes it but if you're one of those people who want an internet that isn't always under threat of being shutdown just because Sony doesn't like the idea of you having a Lady Gaga song in the background of your youtube video where you fall on your face trying to beat a game on your Xbox,you can click on the photo below and get in touch with your local member of congress. You can do that right after this short video by a group of video game makers about why they in particular don't like it.

Now with that said,earlier today I found out via twitter that republican senator Mark Kirk has come out to oppose SOPA's partner bill PIPA which is basically the same thing but the senate version. You should reallylearn about PIPA. To see who's supporting the bill,who's against it and what you can do about it,click on my member of congress.

A Liberal Dose of Conservatism

2012-01-17T22:58:00.018-05:00

Today, Newt Gingrich said that if he doesn't win the Saturday Primary in South Carolina, the GOP "will probably nominate a moderate. And the odds are fairly high he will lose to Obama."

To his credit, Newt knows a lot about defeating Democrats, but we've heard this mantra before. Four years ago, Ann Coulter and many others went on Fox News decrying John McCain, saying that the GOP had already lost the election if they end up nominating him, which was true. John McCain didn't stand a chance, but to scapegoat "moderate" Republicans like that is to completely miss the point, (ironically, that also changes the very definition of a moderate) making it more clear than ever that they learned nothing from their astounding defeat in 2008. I fully expect the GOP establishment to continue to jump on the moderate hate wagon as Mitt Romney closes in on the nomination.

The GOP continues to live in this fantasy world where Ronald Reagan was a noninclusive neoconservative that got elected because he was the McMuffin of capitalists. They completely forget that he was not only a believer in the "big tent" idea, but that he also expanded the government and closed tax loopholes for wealthy businesses to reign in the deficit. Corporations and the rich paid more taxes under Reagan, and in fact, have never paid higher taxes since, not even when Bill Clinton was President. Obama has not once introduced or supported a bill that would bring upper class and corporate taxes back to where they were in the late 80s.

Reagan also wanted to scale back our nuclear weapons arsenal. He supported and signed a bill that gave amnesty to illegal aliens. As Governor of California he signed legislation that not only made it easier for women to get abortions, but allowed more tax-payer funded abortions than Mitt Romney ever resided over as Governor of Massachusetts.

That being said, Mitt Romney was an Independent during the Reagan/Bush years, and thought that Reagan was too conservative. They certainly had disagreements on how health care should be administered. There was a time when Romney was the quintessential moderate Republican, which still haunts him to this day within his own party.

John McCain also solidified his status as a moderate conservative prior to receiving the 2008 Republican Presidential nomination. He viciously attacked the right-wing, and loathed leaders in the Christian community that tried to use their influence to bring about theocracy. He supported campaign finance reform and amnesty for illegal aliens as well. He was against the Bush tax cuts, and slammed George W. Bush for merely debating torture as an option in time of war.

The Republicans are correct in labeling these two candidates as moderates, however, they are are wrong in assuming that is what led to, or will inevitably lead to, their demise at the hands of a Democrat.

The broken record sounds a bit like this. "George W. Bush was a moderate who expanded government and caved in to the Democrats too often, which caused us to lose the 2008 election to Barack Obama. Barack Obama is a liberal socialist who failed to recover the economy fast enough. Whoever we nominate will beat Barack Obama, so we should put the right guy in there to defeat him." ...the right guy being whomever has the most conservative, right-wing record.

This is how completely out-of-touch the GOP is with mainstream America. The 80% of us who live somewhere in the middle between the left and right want nothing more than a President who can change the way things work in Washington. Obama is clearly not the guy who's going to bring about the kind of dramatic change we were looking for, but the complaints coming from Independents have more to do with disappointment that he hasn't done more, than the belief that he is a failure. I find it hard to believe that the Independents and moderate Republicans that voted for Obama in 2008 are looking for a candidate that is more conservative than George W. Bush. This attitude is what caused both John McCain and Mitt Romney to give up their moderate views in exchange for an extremist, radical, noninclusive, right-wing conservative platform. Both would be electable candidates had they stayed true to their moderate roots. There is not a shred of evidence to suggest that America is looking for what establishment Republicans are calling for in their presidential nomination.

It's too late now, because Mitt Romney's skeletons are out of the closet and he's well on his way to winning the nomination. He will lose to Barack Obama, not because he's a moderate, but because he will likely make the mistake that any of these nominees would make at the hands of the neoconservative, evangelical Christian base. He will lose the Hispanic vote that significantly helped George W. Bush win re-election. He will lose the LGBT vote, and everyone who supports their equal rights cause. He will lose the Black vote, most likely because he will patronize them and suggest that they're only voting for Obama because they are too stupid to think for themselves. He will also lose the vote of those who support women's reproductive rights. Most of the polls suggest that the majority of Americans were disappointed with Obama's health care reform because it didn't go far enough, but even being conservative about it would suggest that threatening to veto or dismantle the bill would cut him off from half of the voting population.

The big tent that Ronald Reagan built has slowly deteriorated over the past three decades, and is now all but completely destroyed. This actually makes Obama a lot more like Reagan than Republicans would ever want to admit. Jimmy Carter was seen as a failure, and Walter Mondale was seen as both a reincarnation of Jimmy Carter, as well as an unprincipled fair-weather liberal. Reagan's policies were controversial, and the country was not convinced that we were on the right road to economic recovery, but re-elected him in a landslide because there were no better options. Much like Reagan, Obama uses humor to brush off the vicious attacks of his opponents. While he has shown he is capable of both landing and taking punches, much like Reagan, he will never hit his opponent below the belt. I wouldn't even be surprised to hear Obama use a famous line from Reagan's campaign, "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?"

Republicans often cite the momentum they built in 2010 as a sign that the tides have turned. Yet, look at what happened in campaigns where the Tea Party hand-picked the nominee, or inserted a third-party candidate in elections that were otherwise winnable by Republicans. In fact, it has been said many times, had it not been for the Tea Party, the Republicans would have taken the Senate. They also seem to forget that voter turnout was extremely low in 2010, as it is in every mid-term election, which is why Republicans tend to gain momentum in them. Some of the Republicans that were elected are now being recalled. Two seats in the Minnesota legislature were turned over to Democrats in the last special election, and today one million petitions were handed in to start the recall process for Governor Scott Walker. All evidence, including polling data and election trends, is suggesting that the tide is rolling back towards the Democrats. As a volunteer in the 2008 Obama campaign, I saw first-hand how powerful and organized his Get-Out-The-Vote program was, and while voter enthusiasm may be low, GOTV will still be a force to be reckoned with.

The only thing the GOP has going for it is the SCOTUS decision that allows corporations to donate endless amounts of funds to their campaigns. If they're not careful, this could be a double-edged sword, and it might not take much to convince some of those corporations to support Democrats. All-in-all, Republicans are now seen as the party that is most in bed with Wall Street, making it very difficult for the GOP to circumvent transparency on their apparent disdain for the 99%. Perhaps this will be the first election in more than a century where corporate campaign spending has a diminished effect.

Obama's strategy, which continues to completely go over the heads of GOP strategists, is akin to what boxers call Rope-a-dope. He gets his opponents whipped up into a fury early and fights conservatively, but ultimately stays in the match to the bitter end. He meticulously lands enough jabs to slowly wear down his opponent, then when the time is right, goes in for the knockout punch. Hillary Clinton knows about this strategy all too well, and no doubtingly respects Obama for it, when it comes to defeating Republicans. The Republicans clearly have yet to pick up on it, and are currently falling into the trap that has been laid down in front of them.

While I can't predict the future, it's no surprise that Republicans are struggling to find enthusiasm for the field of candidates they have to choose from, who are mostly separated from each other by petty and insignificant differences. All of the anger and hatred they have towards Obama will amount to nothing, because they couldn't find a nominee they could all get behind. The Republican Party is completely fractured, mostly chasing off those with any real common sense, who may appeal to a larger subset of voters than the diminishing Republican base. The tragic demise of the party of Abraham Lincoln means that Obama will not have a worthy opponent in this election that will challenge him to make good on the promises he made in 2008, and America may never see this great country rise to the potential it once had.

Just killing time here

2012-01-17T11:37:00.000-05:00

Today happens to be one of the better days of the year as far as dates go. You may be wondering "Why would he think that?". I'll tell you why in the next sentence. Today happens to be the shared birthday of two of my favorite people. These people are Muhammad Ali and first lady Michelle Obama who are 70 and 48 respectively. I honestly look up to both of them. The first lady has been spending her time getting flack for even coming out and trying to tackle the problem of childhood obesity. Of course she does have the support of the medical community which helpfully points out the myriad of problems associated with excessive extra weight. Muhammad Ali is one of the greatest boxers of all time and no one can argue that. Outside of the ring he was known for his outspokenness which oftentimes angered some of the more conservative people in America. Oh and he once saved a guy from falling to his immediate death on live TV. In this video from 1981,we get to see the boxing legend save a man from killing himself. Click on,look at and be riveted by this old school CBS News report about how Ali prevented a suicide.

Random Observation

2012-01-16T22:58:00.000-05:00

I was in the middle of emailing earlier and talking about the GOP debate and I had a few observations about the current republican party. What you're going to read below is an email that I sent. Somewhere in there is a coherent thought. I hope you enjoy it.

Just look at their numbers with everybody that isn't an aging white male. They're low all around. On a consistent basis they insult black people and then wonder why only 7 or 8 of us out of the more than 30 million in this country vote for them. They make sure to blame the social problems in this country on gay people and then make new laws to piss them off and then are shocked when they're pissed off. Their whole platform on women is that all of you are immoral whores and because of that they try their hardest to take away reproductive rights. It's to the point now that in some places having a miscarriage is the same as an abortion and both can get you in trouble with the law. Somehow it surprises them that this makes women uneasy. Their immigration policy is basically "let's kick out the Mexicans" and you end up with ass backwards and racist laws. They've made it a point to insult the hell out of anything that even seems Latin and are now shocked that Latinos don't like the idea of being kicked out of the country,fenced in once kicked out and then mocked and insulted on top of it.

To try to fight back against all of this they'll just get a token candidate. This is how you end up with guys like Michael Steele as the RNC chair,Herman Cain surging in the polls,Marco Rubio being thrown out there as a VP candidate. This is how you end up with Bachmann thinking she has a shot at being president or Sarah Palin as a VP candidate. Shockingly people see right through this because even though you throw a black candidate out there,black people wont necessarily vote for them. This is true with everyone and when you throw that token candidate out there you've officially called the populous a bunch of idiots. I'm ranting here but feel free to find a coherent thought in that.

Ad of the day

2012-01-16T15:26:00.000-05:00

Today's ad of the day comes from an unexpected,yet hilarious source. It comes from comedic mastermind and walking parody,Stephen Colbert. You may or may not have known that Stephen Colbert is trying once again to run for president in South Carolina. Of course to be successful in this he has to take on and take down the current leader in the pack of republicans who are fighting for the chance to dethrone president Obama. This means that he has to go hard after Mitt Romney,who by the way wins my vote for best autograph at 8am. Click and watch as the Colbert SuperPac lays out why Mitt Romney is less suited for the white house and more suited for an episode of Law and Order:SVU.

The best of Huntsman

2012-01-16T13:55:00.000-05:00

The hunt for that elusive ticket to the white house may be over for Jon Huntsman but I personally want to take a little time to remember some of the good times of this tragically short lived campaign. In fact if I were going to choose a guy in the GOP primary,it would have been him. He seemed like the least insane one and on top of that he can really play the hell out of a piano. In fact you get to see the piano skills,his daughters and a few other awesome things in the video below. Click,enjoy and share with your friends.

The hunt is over

2012-01-15T21:49:00.003-05:00

It looks like the republican field is narrowing. According to a ton of news people,Jon Huntsman has decided to call it quits on his run towards the white house and it looks like he may have chosen someone to endorse. To find out who,click on the photo below.

Just killing time here

2012-01-15T21:39:00.000-05:00

If there's one thing I've learned over the years is that women are surprisingly strong. What a lot of them lack in stature they make up for in pure badassery. In the video below you'll see a guy who somehow doesn't know that his girlfriend has a deadly left hand. Watch below as a prank backfires horribly for our amusement.

Scare Prank Backfires On Boyfriend - Watch More Funny Videos

Decision 2012

2012-01-11T23:59:00.000-05:00

I didn't know this but apparently we're supposed to vote for something in a few months. I think we're voting for the president again(already?) and this time there's no shortage of old white guys running for president. Among this group you have libertarian hero,enemy of frivolous spending and possible racist associate Ron Paul,former US ambassador to China,Jon Huntsman and owner of the worlds smoothest autograph and Mexican,Mitt Romney. Oh and there's a black guy running again,I don't think he has too big of a shot though. If you need help figuring out which of these jerks line up with you on the issues that are currently facing America,there's a handy chart to help you. To go to this interactive chart that shows you how you line up with the presidential contenders,click on the photo below.

Random act of failure

2012-01-07T15:20:00.000-05:00

I don't think there is much that can be said here. If anything,stuff like this is keeping me in a mood that doesn't completely cross that line into depression. With that said,I think someone just got themselves fired from a Brooklyn are Papa Johns. Click and be amazed by horrendous amounts of pizza related racism.

A natural distrust

2012-01-07T03:44:00.000-05:00

Over the past few years I've had this weird theory about Barack Obama and how everyone perceives him. I don't know if it's weird because it comes across contradictory or weird because of how outlandish it's about to sound in the next few sentences. My theory is that Barack Obama gets so much grief from people on both sides of the aisle because no one really trusts his judgement. Has he had a record of perfection as president? No,not by a long shot but overall I'd say it's been good given where we are today compared to where we would've been if we had stayed on the path of the Bush years. Everyone looks at him and they immediately think that he should probably be a sidekick at best. Even democrats do that and according to my twitter feed,democrats do it at a ridiculous level. Every single issue turns into "How is Obama ruining America this time?". I expect this from republicans because on a philosophical level they don't agree with his stances and how he's going about in his quest to make America a better country. They have a totally different idea and approach and they will make sure to tell you about why their ideas are better. When I see democrats constantly hopping on the bash Obama wagon it's a little weird,especially when he's doing something(Obamacare is a great example) that they've been wanting to do for years but haven't been able to do even without the frustrating political circumstances that he's been dealing with. Of course they don't disagree with his policies or even his tactics,they just don't really trust him for whatever reason.

I guess there's a natural level of distrust with politicians because they do have a history of promising a lot and delivering little but the level of distrust for Barack Obama reminds me of how people in and around Detroit viewed Kwame Kilpatrick after the multiple corruption scandals broke and he got convicted of a felony. When there's a level of distrust that high,there has to be a reason for that. I don't want to say that maybe this country has a weird distrust of black people but it's not often that you see really successful black people on TV who aren't athletes,entertainers or Oprah. When was the last time you saw someone who wasn't an older,white male in charge of something that could actually effect your life even on a small scale? I'll wait for those answers in comments but it's not an everyday occurrence. We have never seen a black person or anyone that isn't an older white male in a position of power like this before so we as a country are still trying to gauge whether he knows what he's doing despite it being more than 3 years into his term. We've all grown up in this country with the idea basically implanted in us that the hero,the leader,the best of the bunch is always a guy that kinda looks like Mitt Romney. The guys that look like me are either the enemy or the sidekick but never the hero. The Hillary Clintons of the world are always 3rd string characters and the Palins of the world are basically varying levels of Kelly Bundy. What I'm saying is that we're conditioned to not see these people in charge so when they do get a chance to be THAT guy,we wont trust them and will fight them every step of the way because we just don't believe that they can do it. Even worse we do believe that they can do it but because of the history this country has with being hateful towards them, we think that they're going to pay this country back for it with a vengeance. It's that irrational fear that let stupid things like the president's birth certificate,offhand remarks,a complete lack of actually caring about the big picture and other assorted riffraff distract us from the real problems out there.

We want a way out of the messes this country has been bogged down in. We like his ideas. We just kinda wish that he looked like a leader. Also,here's a copy of his signing statement on the National Defense Authorization Act where he basically points out the things he doesn't like about it,points out why it's not helpful and what he would rather see in its place. Of course someone will point out to me that his words are total lies because of everything I just explained above. Of course all of that is just a manifestation of things that have been swirling around in my head.

Picture of the day

2012-01-06T15:12:00.000-05:00

Today's picture has a little bit of a story behind it. On September 25th,2008 the country was in the midst of the last presidential election. It was clearly an exciting time as we were only a little bit more than a month away from electing the first black president. That day also happens to be the day that NBC's today show decided to stop through the city of Detroit for a special election related episode. My mother,my younger sister and I were more than happy to go downtown and get as close as we could to Ann Curry and Al Roker for this episode. Oh and this also happened to be 2 days before my sister turned 17.

To celebrate this occasion and possibly get on TV,she decided to quickly make a sign proclaiming that it was in fact her birthday. In fact if you were one of the millions of people who watched that show you can see her with her sign,my mother next to her,a slightly heavier and hairier me on her right side and a short white woman next to me who would not stop yelling when Aretha Franklin was out there for a cooking segment. Of course this whole story is about the sign and in particular who signed it. With that said let's go down the list of who signed it.

Local weatherman and all around good guy, Andrew Humphrey
Everyone's favorite morning weatherman,Al Roker
My journalistic crush/woman who's aging in reverse, Ann Curry
Former Michigan governor and Current TV host, Jennifer Granholm

Oh and it's also signed by current GOP front runner, Mitt Romney.

Click to see a larger photo of the most random collection of autographs ever.

Ad of the day

2012-01-04T20:27:00.000-05:00

The Santorum Surge is in full effect right now. After months of very little coverage and lots of laughter,Mix Master Rick is finally getting the spotlight that he deserves. Thanks to this increased spotlight we've been able to learn more about the man. Did you know that he worked with Hillary Clinton to try to outlaw games like Grand Theft Auto? If not,now you know. Click on and enjoy one of the better political ads I have ever seen.

Just killing time here

2012-01-04T00:02:00.000-05:00

Michele Bachmann dances with her husband after placing 6th in the Iowa caucus. Am I the only one that thinks that Marcus Bachmann looks a tad bit uncomfortable around Michele Bachmann? This is not the look of a man who is in comfort. I could be totally wrong though. Anyway,enjoy the pic.

Live Caucus Results

2012-01-03T19:05:00.000-05:00

People in the great state of Iowa are currently voting in the year's first republican caucus. In the lead up to today's important vote we've seen a consistent showing in the polls from Mitt Romney,the rise of Ron Paul,the end of Herman Cain,the rise and fall of Newt Gingrich and most recently the Santorum Surge. We even got a surprise celebrity appearance by the Duggar family for this vote. With all of that looming,shouldn't we be able to see who's going to win and who's winning in real time? Well now you can by clicking on the state map below. Feel free to share this with everyone you know.

Random act of failure

2012-01-03T02:28:00.000-05:00

You may not know this but I was watching a thrilling game between MSU and Georgia yesterday. The game was a back and forth affair that went all the way into 3 overtimes. Eventually the Michigan State Spartans won it and everyone where I live celebrated. Of course during that game I happened to see something that looked a little weird. Fortunately for me and everyone else,someone at Deadspin happened to catch it too and thanks to them we get to see the best sign ever at a college football game.

Santorum Surge

2012-01-02T18:16:00.000-05:00

Earlier today,the Santorum surged into Sioux City,Iowa to talk about a myriad of issues. CBS news was there to capture his campaign stump speech when they came across this interesting bit of monologue from the GOP hopeful. Click on the photo below and listen to who Rick Santorum would cut from entitlement programs and why.