From CREW (Citizens for Responsiblity and Ethics in Washington), we get their list of the 26 biggest, most corrupt elected fuckwads in office:

    * Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)
    * Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO)
    * Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL)
    * Sen. Roland Burris (D-IL)
    * Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA)
    * Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)
    * Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA)
    * Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)
    * Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
    * Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA)
    * Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL)
    * Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
    * Rep. Gary Miller (R-CA)
    * Rep. Alan B. Mollohan (D-WV)
    * Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
    * Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA)
    * Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-NY)
    * Rep. Laura Richardson (D-CA)
    * Rep. Harold Rogers (R-KY)
    * Rep. David Scott (D-GA)
    * Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX)
    * Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH)
    * Rep. Pete Visclosky (D-IN)
    * Sen. David Vitter (R-LA)
    * Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA)
    * Rep. Don Young (R-AK)

There are quite a few D's on that list, which supports my theory that most elected fuckwits are worthless bags of sheepshit that seek to further their own bank accounts. The majority are from the House of Rep's. If these fuckers actions don't scream reform, I don't know what does. Also check out their sister site, Under Investigation which provides updates on those being investigated...sadly not all the fuckers listed above are. From that site:

CREW has compiled a list of Congress members likely under investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct (House ethics committee), the Senate Select Committee on Ethics (Senate ethics committee) or the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE). Due to the secrecy surrounding these investigative bodies, the list is compiled from press reports. On October 30, 2009, The Washington Post revealed a leaked House ethics committee memo documenting the investigative activities surrounding House members by the House ethics committee and/or the OCE. The OCE was created in 2008 to review allegations of misconduct against members of the House and refers matters to the House ethics committee for further action. As a result, it is not always clear which body is investigating the Member.

U.S. Representatives

• Representative Robert Aderholt (R-AL) UPDATE
• Representative G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) UPDATE
• Representative Ken Calvert (R-CA)
• Representative John Campbell (R-CA) UPDATE
• Representative Joseph Crowley (D-NY) UPDATE
• Representative Alcee Hastings (D-FL) UPDATE
• Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)
• Representative Jerry Lewis (R-CA)
• Representative Gregory Meeks (D-NY)
• Representative Gary Miller (R-CA)
• Representative Allan Mollohan (D-WV)
• Representative Timothy Murphy (R-PA)
• Representative Solomon Ortiz (D-TX) UPDATE
• Representative Tom Price (R-GA) UPDATE
• Representative Charles Rangel (D-NY)
• Representative Pete Visclosky (D-IN)
• Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA)
• Representative Joe Wilson (R-SC) UPDATE
• Representative Don Young (R-AK) UPDATE

U.S. Senators

• Senator John Ensign (R-NV)
• Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ)

It's always amazing to me how these bags of batshit get re-elected over and over again, even when in the throes of a congressional investigation and/or on trial for corruption. Why would you vote for someone that has questionable practices in the first place? Don't these voters want good people to represent them, folks who do not have a dark-fucking-cloud hanging over their heads?  WTF does that say about their constituents? I will tell you....either they don't give a rat's ass or they are an entire district of ignorant assholes...take your pick.

Remember Randy Duke Cunningham? His worthless ass was re-elected in California's 50th District, whilst on trial in federal court for kickbacks. The evidence was overwhelming and he pled guilty and did the perp walk into a federal prison. He admitted to taking $2.4 million in bribes mostly from defense contractors in exchange for government business and "other favors". Most of the folks on these lists, one would think, should of heeded that message. So really, I don't know who is dumber, the elected fucktards or their voters.

The AP reports, via ABC:

A federal grand jury is investigating whether the murder last year of Dr. George Tiller, one of the nation's few late-term abortion providers, was connected to a broader case involving radical anti-abortion activists, according to a federal law enforcement official familiar with the case.

The official spoke Friday to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation. The official said federal civil rights prosecutors were holding grand jury proceedings in Kansas City, looking into whether a broader case surrounded Tiller's death.

Tiller was fatally shot in his Wichita church in May 2009 by anti-abortion activist Scott Roeder, who admitted to the shooting and is serving a life prison sentence. The ABC link also provides a video of the sick, twisted, asshole killer Scott Roeder.

May they all rot in the lowest level of Dante's Inferno. Fucking nutters and anti-choice fuckwits that they are.

Obama tells us that the greedy Corporatists at the US Chamber of Commerce are 'possibly' being funded by foreign interests and all the business journals go batshit crazy. Personally, I feel there is more of a chance that the CoC is funding their ads with foreign money than there is me buying a pair of shoes this week or me waking up tomorrow morning with an aching back since I have three blown discs. From Bloomberg's Business Week:

The latest rhetoric may complicate an already tense relationship between the White House and the business community. The Bloomberg Global Poll last month found 77 percent of U.S.-based Bloomberg subscribers say Obama is too anti-business, and his favorability among the 1,408 investors worldwide is down to 49 percent from 73 percent in July 2009.

What a friggin load of horseshit. Obama has kissed the asses of the health insurance industry, auto industry (which I didn't mind btw), banks, hedge funds, Wall Streeters and a whole friggin list of businesses and corporations with various bills he has signed into law and fucking plenty of what his administration has said and done since he took office.

Are those assholes in the 'business community' just as fucking stupid as the teabaggers? Or are they just the usual greedy bastards who put profit over people..and over everything else?

The Fifteen Biggest Lies about the Economy (And Everything Else the Right Doesn't Want You to Know about Taxes, Jobs, and Corporate America).Joshua Holland's new book pretty much debunks all the fuckery and bullshit we get from the batshit fucktards on the extreme right...who btw run the Party Of No, known as the GOP. There is an excerpt here at AlterNet worth reading especially since it addresses the latest bs that it iwas the poor folks that caused Wall Street to take that huge shit two years ago and counting.

Via Reader Supported News, we get Krugman's latest: Hey Small Spender. Oh baby, this one is good.

One of my fav's, Robert Reich, from his blog: Why Democrats Should Not Join in Economic Scapegoating.

Gotta run, Matt Taibbi is on MSNBC.

It only took me 12 friggin hours to get my laptop up and running, which I did myself without any professional help, other than the recovery disc from Microsoft, which was only Service Pack Two.So that means I had to download and install over 200 ( I swear to Buddha, I lost count at 150) Microsoft system/program updates to bring it current to service pack 3 and reinstalling a few things...like Firefox and Opera since I refuse to use IE. Getting the wireless router to work with my computer took over an hour and by that time...roughly 7pm...I was out of patience and in pain from sitting forever staring at a fucking computer screen and reinstalling Windows XP and all their effin updates. Christ, I hate Windows...but getting a Mac just isn't possible on my income.

Yes, I did have the guy from Norton/Symantec, a patient man named Jason, reinstall it on my system this morning. Since I haven't populated my system with the backup shit that is online @ Mozy, I figured might as well give Norton another shot, plus they gave me an additional three months gratis...for...cough...all my troubles.

The Bakersfield Business Conference was a joke, and Sarah was a big hit w/the rightwing nutters who dropped a lot of cash to sit in a fucking tent on folding chairs and listen to her, Mitt, Newt, Rove, Cheney and other members of Nutter U talk shit, obfuscate and lie their asses off. 

It's a massive sports day here (baseball playoffs and football) so I gotta run...please enjoy your day and be good to yourself and others. Karma can be such a bitch you know. ;)

It needs no words from moi.

Also.....Meg Whitman IS a Corporate Ho-bag folks. 

Yes, folks all the rightwing nutters that matter in the universe are most likely in Bakersfield, CA for the Bako Business Conference that starts this weekend. Full disclosure: I worked, for a very short time, for the law firm that hosts this nutterfest every year. They shitcanned me when they found out my political leanings were no where near the right. Showing up this year, just to name a few who will be getting paid big bucks to spew their fuckery are:

Richard B. Cheney (The Big Dick)
  
Dr. Lynne Cheney (his sidekick)
  
Laura W. Bush
  
Sarah Palin

Newt Gingrich

Mitt Romney
  
Eleanor Clift
  
Karl Rove

Rudy Giuliani

Michael Steele

Ain't that a helluva nutterfest folks? All morning, the local news has been interviewing one of the fucktards who is putting this bs on. The word 'patriotic' has been used so many times I would be able to live comfortably for a while, if I got ten bucks for every time I have heard it come out of one of those fuckers pieholes. 

There is a....cough...special guest that is a secret every year. My guess is since both Cheney's are getting paid and Laura crazy eyes Bush is also speaking that The Shrub will be the special nutter....I mean guest.If any of the folks from Nutter U say anything earth-shattering, I will of course blog it immediately. Odds are however, they will spew the same shit they have been preaching for the last six months.

I think security is gonna be tight for a grouping this large full of rightwing assholes....just tossing that out there.

I do like when Cenk Uygur is on Dylan Ratigan's show. This man pulls no punches. From C&L's VideoCafe:

The Young Turks' Cenk Uygur takes on the "Tea Party" hypocrites who are trashing the government for helping others while themselves being more than willing to take those government handouts for their own, in The Dylan Ratigan show's daily rant segment.
There's Michele Bachmann and her farm subsidies. -- A guest poster followup: Michele Bachmann did vote to protect farm subsidies for wealthy recipients.
Joe Miller and his wife's unemployment benefits -- Despite Joe Miller Calling Federal Aid Unconstitutional, His Wife Received Unemployment Benefits.
Joe Miller and his farm subsidies -- Joe Miller Admits Reaping Federal Farm Subsidies Despite Railing Against Taking Government Funds.
Ron Johnson's HUD grant -- Ron Johnson's Latest Hypocrisy on Government Assistance: His Own Job Was Created by a Government Grant
And last but not least, Sharron Angle's government health care -- Sharron Angle And Her Husband Receive Government Health Care .

And the video below.

Poor Fucker is so far out there, he needs oxygen. From our friends at C&L:

Yes, I adore, respect and admire Matt. Yes, I think he knows what he is talking about, all the friggin time. The first few paragraphs of his latest RS article:

Once again a key piece of news has passed virtually without comment.

While the entire nation argues over nonsense like the WTC Mosque, Rick Sanchez, and, yes, blue-red culture war stuff like the Tea Party, congress yesterday quietly took a knee on the “carried interest” tax question. In doing so they decided not to take a vote on changes already approved by both houses that would scale back perhaps the most preposterous tax break in the entire federal code, one that leaves hedge-fund gazillionaires like Stevie Cohen and John Paulson paying less than half the top tax rate paid by most middle and upper-middle class Americans.

The carried interest tax break is a classic example of how in America constituencies with the means and the bureaucratic endurance to get what they want slowly hack away at the government over time, carving out exemptions to their civic responsibilities while ordinary people suck the proverbial egg. A 100% or 200% tax break for hedge fund and private equity billionaires is not the sort of thing that one passes instantly, by standing up in front of big campaign crowds and urging on a mob; it takes a long time and a lot of behind-the-scenes baby steps.

It just jacks my jaw how the Wall Streeters and the Corporatocracy buy the assholes in Congress so damn easily...regardless of party affiliation.  I really love the next paragraph. Taibbi really does his homework it seems:

The capital-gains-cut movement was opposed by of all people Ronald Reagan, who in 1986 signed into law a thing called the Tax Reform Act that that ended capital gains exemptions and left all types of income taxed at the same rates. Some conservatives have never forgiven Reagan for this move. In any case, over the next 20 years, the capital gains cuts were gradually restored. Clinton in 1997 passed the Taxpayer Relief Act that cut the top rate from 28% to 20%. Then Bush came into office and with his famous monster cuts slashed the capital gains rate even further, to 15%. Bush also reduced taxes on dividends to the same rate as capital gains, 15%.

Saint Ronnie opposed this thinly disguised corporate welfare/top 2 precenter's handout? Are you shitting me dude? OMFG....I think my head is going to explode.  Read it m'dear readers...read the whole writeup here.

And before anyone asks....yes my laptop is still dead and that asshole from Norton is now not returning my calls.

When Norton blows up your laptop whilst they are 'trying to figure out why its sucking 100% of my CPU' after I did their software update.

I lost in the final round of the fantasy baseball playoffs..oh, fucking well, second ain't that bad when your ass is kicked 10-5.

The folks at Norton, and I use that term 'folks' loosely,(personally I call them something much uglier) are now sending me some fucking recovery disc since I get nothing but the BSOD (blue screen of death) when I try to boot my laptop. Some woman with a really heavy, hard to understand, out of the country accent, really hosed me when she said she could 'fix it', and now I get to deal with some guy named Jason who is 'da boss' and here in the US. Gawd=fucking=bless outsourcing eh folks?

There is more bullshittery, but I believe you folks really don't need to read about it....lets just say ole Dad took a trip to Anaheim for no apparent reason(he couldn't explain why he was there and actually didn't know where in the hell he was) and the cops there refused to do a report on the old fucker who couldn't find his ass w/both hands last Thursday. See, Dad is a retired law enforcement officer with a gold-fucking-badge that evidently gets his drunk-80 year old- ass out of all kinds of problems and situations when he fucks up, mostly behind the wheel of a huge friggin SUV.

So, have a good day...and pray to Buddha those fucks at Norton can fix whatever the hell they fucked up on my laptop come Wed or Thursday. I despise using the ball n' chains Desktop.

Susie Madrak has a good post up at C&L about the govt program known as Welfare and how it fucks the middle class folks that are hurting the most right now. From her piece:

In addition to being severely underfunded during this crisis, the welfare programs simply aren't set up to help the formerly-middle class people who are trying to get into the system. For instance, here in Pennsylvania, someone I know was turned down because his bank statement showed transfers from Paypal into his checking account, and they counted that as monthly income. He tried to explain that he'd sold everything he had left on eBay, and there was nothing left to sell, but the caseworker wouldn't listen. Contrary to popular myth, it's quite difficult for anyone with any assets at all to get onto welfare:

She quotes a WaPo article on the state of the Welfare program:

The number of families getting welfare checks, federal figures show, increased by about 185,000 between the start of the recession in late 2007 and this spring. During roughly the same period, the number of families living in poverty rose by more than 400,000 to record levels, according to the Census Bureau, which reported this week that, in Washington, three out of 10 children were poor last year.

*snip*

Nearly three years after the start of a grave economic downturn, it now is clear that "despite extremely high levels of employment, that has not translated into welfare increases as much as many people expected," said Douglas J. Besharov, a University of Maryland professor who has studied welfare for years.

People are barely hanging on by their fingernails. Not everyone is walking away from their now, over-priced, mortgages. I have friends and family members that are kept awake at night trying to figure out how to pay the simplest of bills: electricity, mortgage or rent, water and of course put food on the table and gas in the car to go to work....that is, if they still have their jobs. People are giving back their vehicles that they still owe money on and are buying what I call 'beaters' just to get around. As long as it runs, its great...right?

Wrong. The Middle Class has been the backbone of our nation for decades upon decades. They were the ones buying homes, cars, RV's, flat screen tv's, etc. and never blinking an eye when the bills came due...they just paid them like they were raised to do.  They are the consumers that retail sales depend on.

Problem was/is, they were not saving for this 'rainy day' we call The Recession. No one was it seems...

Next week, the emergency welfare funding for states will end. Since the Welfare program is run by each state differently, its hard to gauge how this will affect our citizenry.

But we are going to find out since Congress has put off this issue until next fucking year.

It's on CSPAN1 and Laura Flanders is reporting live from the One Nation progressive rally in DC today. It started at 11am eastern time and runs all day. From Grittv.org:

On Saturday, October 2, 2010, hundreds of thousands of Americans from across the country will gather at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. to demonstrate a commitment to change.

The television broadcast will include main stage speeches, interviews with organizers and analysts, and reporting from the crowd. It will air nationally from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm Eastern Time on DISH Network channel 9415, DIRECTV channel 348 and numerous cable stations across the country, as well as on GRITtv.org.

I hope there is a huge turnout today. Check it out folks. It's supposed to be a very diverse list of speakers, right now I believe there is a muslim minister speaking that followed a christian female minister.

Make jobs, not fucking wars!

The Chief Judge for the Northern District of California is retiring at the end of the year, his name is Vaughn R. Walker. Who will fill his shoes? Good question as Obama has a chance to stock the Federal courts with fair, balanced judges and so far he hasn't done shit, as there are over one hundred vacancies at this very moment. From Emptywheel over at FireDogLake:

So, who will fill the enormous shoes of Vaughn Walker? The sad and pitiful truth is probably nobody because Barack Obama has displayed a shocking and reckless disdain for his duty to stock and replenish the Federal Judiciary (see here and here). There are currently 105 Federal judicial seats vacant, and that is not including Vaughn Walker’s yet; and a grand total of 48 nominees pending, with 25 of them pending in the Judiciary Committee and 23 having already been passed out of Judiciary and placed on the Senate Executive Calendar (although Harry Reid has not scheduled a floor vote for a single one of them).

I find this bullshit unconscionable. It's getting harder every day to find things or issues on which to support President Obama. It's also becoming flat out impossible for me to support any democrat running for federal office this November.

On a related issue, my bud RJ (Global Glass Onion) and his other blog, sent me this link this morning which states the Democrats have sided with the worthless batshit crazies known as Republicans to block Obama from making appointments during the Congressional recess coming up.From RawStory: 

In a stunning alliance between Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans, Senate Democratic leadership quietly agreed Wednesday evening to block President Barack Obama from making recess appointments while senators return home to campaign for midterm elections, according to a Congressional newspaper.

The move involves Senate leadership holding "pro-forma" sessions of the Senate every Monday and Friday to prevent Obama from filling vacant senior federal positions. By holding sessions every few days, Obama can't slip his nominees through. 

Ain't that some shit folks? The Green Party is looking pretty good these days as it seems to me that you can't tell the difference between a Democrat and a Republican. George Bush made plenty of fucking recess appointments during his eight years...so it begs the following question to be posed to the morons with a "D" after their name:

WTF ASSHOLES?

Since I personally believe that hate speech should not be protected speech, I pray to Buddha that this case, known as Snyder v Phelps, now up before SCOTUS, bankrupts those fucking nutters at Westboro Baptist and finally shuts those scum-sucking, attention-getting bastards up permanently. All the briefs have been filed. From the FirstAmendmentCenter.org link above:

Snyder v. Phelps forces the Supreme Court to assess some of the most unpopular speech ever placed before it: virulent protests staged at military funerals.

Members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., have been picketing funerals of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq or Afghanistan, with the message that America is being punished for tolerating homosexuality. At issue is whether a verdict assessing damages against the church for causing emotional distress to a soldier’s family in Maryland violates the First Amendment.

The Court granted review on March 8, and the briefing for the case is complete, with organizations on both sides filing 15 friend-of-the-court briefs. The case is set for argument Oct. 6 with Margie Phelps, daughter of the church’s pastor, Fred Phelps, scheduled to argue her family’s cause. Representing the family of soldier Matthew Snyder will be Sean Summers of the York, Pa., law firm Barley Snyder.

SCOTUS Blog has the history and most of the info here on Snyder v Phelps.