Grade Government

Rate your representatives here. I have to wonder just who is grading as the bottom, F's, all seem to be democrats (although they probably deserve the grade).

Sample:
531. T. Bishop (D) NY-1st F
530. M. Capuano (D) MA-8th F
529. T. Childers (D) MS-1st F
528. J. Cooper (D) TN-5th F
527. J. Crowley (D) NY-7th F
526. H. Cuellar (D) TX-28th F
525. K. Dahlkemper (D) PA-3rd F
524. S. Davis (D) CA-53rd F
523. A. Davis (D) AL-7th F
522. B. Ellsworth (D) IN-8th F
521. S. Israel (D) NY-2nd F
520. H. Johnson (D) GA-4th F
519. M. Kilroy (D) OH-15th F
518. R. Kind (D) WI-3rd F
517. L. Kissell (D) NC-8th F
516. R. Larsen (D) WA-2nd F
515. J. Larson (D) CT-1st F
514. N. Lowey (D) NY-18th F
513. B. Lujan (D) NM-3rd F
512. D. Matsui (D) CA-5th F
511. J. McGovern (D) MA-3rd F
510. M. McIntyre (D) NC-7th F
509. J. McNerney (D) CA-11th F
508. G. Meeks (D) NY-6th F
507. G. Moore (D) WI-4th F
506. C. Murphy (D) CT-5th F
505. R. Neal (D) MA-2nd F
504. B. Pascrell (D) NJ-8th F
503. D. Payne (D) NJ-10th F
502. C. Pingree (D) ME-1st F
501. J. Polis (D) CO-2nd F
500. E. Pomeroy (D) ND F
499. S. Rothman (D) NJ-9th F
498. L. Roybal-Allard (D) CA-34th F
497. C. Ruppersberger (D) MD-2nd F
496. L. Sanchez (D) CA-47th F
495. J. Sarbanes (D) MD-3rd F
494. M. Schauer (D) MI-7th F
493. A. Schiff (D) CA-29th F
492. J. Serrano (D) NY-16th F
491. B. Sherman (D) CA-27th F
490. A. Sires (D) NJ-13th F
489. A. Smith (D) WA-9th F
488. J. Speier (D) CA-12th F
487. B. Stupak (D) MI-1st F
486. B. Thompson (D) MS-2nd F
485. J. Tierney (D) MA-6th F
484. N. Tsongas (D) MA-5th F
483. T. Udall (D) NM F
482. P. Visclosky (D) IN-1st F
481. T. Walz (D) MN-1st F
480. D. Watson (D) CA-33rd F
479. P. Welch (D) VT F
478. C. Dodd (D) CT F
477. N. Pelosi (D) CA-8th F
476. B. Frank (D) MA-4th F
475. R. Burris (D) IL F
474. S. Kosmas (D) FL-24th F
473. D. Moore (D) KS-3rd F
472. B. Rush (D) IL-1st F
471. H. Waxman (D) CA-30th F
470. B. Filner (D) CA-51st F
469. B. Boxer (D) CA F
468. H. Reid (D) NV F
467. D. Scott (D) GA-13th F
466. C. Wilson (D) OH-6th F
465. J. Murtha (D) PA-12th F
464. M. Waters (D) CA-35th F
463. D. Obey (D) WI-7th F
462. D. Feinstein (D) CA F
461. P. Murray (D) WA F
460. D. Stabenow (D) MI F
459. C. Brown (D) FL-3rd F
458. L. Capps (D) CA-23rd F
457. B. Markey (D) CO-4th F
456. G. Peters (D) MI-9th F
455. M. Watt (D) NC-12th F
454. C. Rangel (D) NY-15th F
453. H. Teague (D) NM-2nd F
452. H. Kohl (D) WI F
451. R. Menendez (D) NJ F
450. B. Lee (D) CA-9th F
449. A. Specter (D) PA F
448. M. Bennet (D) CO F
447. C. Schumer (D) NY F
446. C. Carney (D) PA-10th F
445. K. Castor (D) FL-11th F
444. J. Costello (D) IL-12th F
443. D. Halvorson (D) IL-11th F
442. B. Miller (D) NC-13th F
441. J. Olver (D) MA-1st F
440. A. Schwartz (D) PA-13th F
439. V. Snyder (D) AR-2nd F
438. N. Velazquez (D) NY-12th F
437. D. Wu (D) OR-1st F
436. J. Kerry (D) MA F
435. J. Jackson (D) IL-2nd F
434. X. Becerra (D) CA-31st F
433. D. Boren (D) OK-2nd F
432. S. Kagen (D) WI-8th F
431. Z. Lofgren (D) CA-16th F
430. J. Shaheen (D) NH F
429. J. Rockefeller, IV (D) WV F
428. M. Udall (D) CO F
427. J. Boccieri (D) OH-16th F
426. K. Conrad (D) ND F
425. L. Davis (D) TN-4th F
424. C. Gonzalez (D) TX-20th F
423. J. Himes (D) CT-4th F
422. R. Holt (D) NJ-12th F
421. C. Maloney (D) NY-14th F
420. M. Thompson (D) CA-1st F
419. T. Harkin (D) IA F
418. R. Grijalva (D) AZ-7th F
417. G. Napolitano (D) CA-38th F
416. B. Etheridge (D) NC-2nd F

Buffoonistas

Who are the world's biggest debtor nations?

1st place goes to Ireland - 811%
External debt (as % of GDP): 811%
External debt per capita: $549,819

2nd United Kingdom - 336%
External debt (as % of GDP): 336%
External debt per capita: $153,616

3rd Belgium - 327%
External Debt (as % of GDP): 327%
External debt per capita: $155,362

4th Hong Kong - 295%
External debt (as % of GDP): 295%
External debt per capita: $93,539

5th Netherlands - 268%
External debt (as % of GDP): 268%
External debt per capita: $145,959

6th Switzerland - 264%
External debt (as % of GDP): 264%
External debt per capita: $171,478

7th Austria - 191%
External debt (as % of GDP): 191%
External debt per capita: $100,787

8th France - 168%
External debt (as % of GDP): 168%
External debt per capita: $78,070

9th Denmark - 159%
External debt (as % of GDP): 159%
External debt per capita: $107,026

10th Germany - 137.5%
External debt (as % of GDP): 137.5%
External debt per capita: $63,767

11th Spain - 137.5%
External debt (as % of GDP): 137.5%
External debt per capita: $57,091

12th Sweden - 129%
External debt (as % of GDP): 129%
External debt per capita: $73,245

13th Finland - 116%
External debt (as % of GDP): 116%
External debt per capita: $62,579

14th Norway - 114%
External debt (as % of GDP): 114%
External debt per capita: $118,353

15th - United States - 95.09%
External debt (as % of GDP): 95.09%
External debt per capita: $44,358

Is it just me, or are most of these leading debtor nations also the countries the US left-leaners often claim are icons of social success stories, and we should yearn to imitate their "free" stuff programs?

Bubba, the left-leaning buffoons will claim their debt is the fault of Americans who are sinking the US dollar, at the expense of the above nations, and has nothing to do with the failure of socialist styled governments. But don't listen to 'em Bubba - these folks will cut off their own nose to spite their face.

This Is Your Brain

I am not a supporter of the legalization of marijuana, but I have had a few laughs lately reading the standard arguments of pro-weed supporters; arguments that seem logical only if you are smoking some very good weed (or dream of a future in farming, production, sale of same). But, this latest claim making the Internet rounds has to be the most hilarious - weed cures cancer.

Rick Simpson, a Canadian, has made a name for himself, and a following, with the claims that THC cures cancer. Simpson has a free video on the how and wherefore titled Run From the Cure, and a website Phoenix Tears. Simpson claims to have cured himself of skin cancer. In this video, at approximately 1.45 minutes in, Rick gives you the method of making "hemp oil," the miracle cure. "He's a healer, not a dealer" as supporters like to refer to Rick.



Got that? Place good weed, preferably the buds, with a solvent, mix and stir with either pure naphtha or 99% isopropyl alcohol (naphtha is a petroleum product used in lighter fluid, paint stripper, etc.). Mix well, drain the liquid, take to a well-ventilated area, turn on the fan, use rubber gloves, keep away from flame, boil in a crock pot, pour in container, cool. You have just cooked up in your home lab - the cure for cancer.

Folks, this is the best laugh from Internet follies I've had in a while. Rick has basically just made a potent hashish. I need a rolling on the floor laughing emoticon.

The Struggle Continues: The Phony Revolution

From Cindy Sheehan : "Myth America: 10 Greatest Myths of the Robber Class and the Case for Revolution."

Remember Cindy? The great white progressive peace hope? She is selling a $10 booklet by the above title, listing 10 myths:

Myth One: America: Greatest Nation in the Universe!
Myth Two: Elections Matter
Myth Three: There's a huge Difference Between Dems and Repubs
Myth Four: It is Noble to Die in Robber Class Wars
Myth Five: The Central Banking System is good for the Robbed Class
Myth Six: It's a Privilege to pay Income Taxes to the Robber Class
Myth Seven: Housing, Health Care and Education are Privileges, too
Myth Eight: America has a Free Press
Myth Nine: The Environment, Who Needs it?
Myth Ten: 19 Muslims with box cutters were responsible for 9/11

Cindy divides us into the Robbed and the Robbers, with most of us on the Robbed side. The Robbed are essentially the working class, people who have to struggle for healthcare and higher education.

---- Let me tell you a story, one of many, many stories of the typical struggling working class "Robbed" folks of which I have firsthand information. This segment of the "Robbed" are the folks Sheehan and friends attempt to pander to.

The story is Oleta and Bill, both in their early 40s, with 3 sons ages 4, 6, 8. Oleta constantly feels robbed. She recently applied for foodstamps and bitched outrage for a month because she was not eligible. Bill has a decent job for unskilled labor, bringing in about $35,000 a year. Oleta performs clerical work off and on bringing in another $15,000, and the 2 older children bring in $14,400 from SSI disability (they were preemies with learning disabilities and asthma).

Bill has healthcare at work and the State also covers medical care for the 2 "disabled" kids. At the local health and dental clinic Oleta can have $600 worth of dental work for the sliding scale fee of $25 - and still complains, it should be free because she pays taxes. But, the $200 of Bill's $1400 partial denture, not covered by work insurance - really angered Oleta - she was robbed.

They own their home and somehow Oleta manages to qualify for every program that doles out dollars to low income homeowners, for repairs, upgrades, insulation, a new furnace, etc. Still, she feels robbed when events like the Fema funded cleanup crew after last winter's ice storm did not prune her trees. She might have to pay for that unless Bill decides to do it with help from Oleta's brother who has his own handyman cleanup business - unless she convinces her church she qualifies for free tree trimming, now that those faith-based grants are coming in to help robbed folks like herself.

Oleta has an associate degree - a degree for folks who attend college for 2 years but do not like school and really have no driving ambition or the brains to be higher educated; in the 'hood though an associate degree confers immense bragging rights and status, it's the ghetto PhD. Oleta's 2-year degree took 3-1/2 years to complete and was paid for by affirmative action and grant programs, which would have covered that BA if she had just had the oomph! to go for it. She was robbed again, not because she didn't delay having children for another couple of years, but because the State wouldn't pay for their maintenance while she took her time trying for that BA degree. Oh well, such is the unfairness perpetuated on the robbed class.

Of course Oleta expects her children should have State funded higher education, whether or not they have the mindset or ability is not important. If any of her "disabled" sons are fortunate, they will throw off the label of disabled and get a life, if not, they will draw checks the rest of their life - floating around the 'hood, having kids, brushes with the lawman, smoking the soon to be legalized marijuana and feeling robbed like mom and dad.

Last month Oleta felt robbed because the non-profit local community organization refused to throw some under-the-table work her way - robbed, because she could have used $400 which the organization could have paid her to mop and wax the community room - instead a couple of members volunteered to do it for nothing. Oleta's attitude is how can a righteous woman make a few bucks if some people are ignorant enough to work for free.

Oleta and Bill do not pay actual taxes to the Robber class - they receive $5000-6000 each year in refunds along with any other stimulus/rebate the Robbers deem applicable. Oleta has her own non-profit consulting "business" on the books, on paper, but it never makes any money, other than writing off everything remotely possible as an expense at tax time, computers, cell phones, a portion of home expenses for an office, etc. It was a little scheme she learned in those business courses toward that associate degree.

Oleta and Bill vote once every four years and then forget about it. They don't read much so are unconcerned about whether the press is free or not, besides if it is on CNN then it must be true - but most of their news comes from church bulletins, quasi-Rev. Wright pastors, social program pamphlets, or the uniquely garbled grapevine of Black political interpretation from local community leaders with associate degrees.

If concern for the environment is going to cost them out of pocket or create any inconvenience - forget it, they will feel robbed.

They know there is little difference between democrats and republicans - but they believe democrats always initiate a few more social programs - in fact, Oleta is eagerly awaiting to see if her home-based business qualifies her for a paid consultant position regarding a local low-income housing project. She believes she knows exactly what the "robbed" class here needs - but eeewww weeeee girl! if you could hear her regular gossip about the thieving, low-life lazy bums in the 'hood you would think she couldn't be paid to help them.

Oleta and Bill believe 19 boxcutters are possible because Oleta's cousin Jammer stole 6 cars in 1 day and the cops still don't know where the chop shop is located. Oleta and Bill have never served in the wars of the Robber class - nor have any of their immediate or extended family members - soldiering is for poor folks and fools and why serve when receiving is so respectably easy, especially if you have an associate degree and are slightly smarter than most of the other Robbed folks.

They do sometimes believe the #1 myth though - America the greatest nation in the universe - depending on how much free stuff they qualify for in a given year.

Oleta just returned from an Easter cruise to the Bahamas - her fake hair and nails need to be done after a week on the water and buffet dining, and she is broke until the boys checks come in this month. But even after a vacation Oleta is in a bad mood - always feeling robbed.

As to the case for revolution my dear defenders of the Robbed class - you better have lots of funding, because folks like Oleta and Bill aren't going to do anything unless there is money or a voucher attached.

Arrr Me Matey

You are being lied to about pirates - or so says Johann Hari. According to Hari these people (pirates) "have an extraordinary story to tell - and some justice on their side."

The defense of piracy by the criminal elements of the progressive movement claim pirates are pirating because bad people are dumping toxic waste and trawling in Somali waters - hence justice is on their side. Hari and ilk give new meaning to the word poopdeck.

I read AllAfrica regularly and have not seen anything on toxic dumping as the excuse behind multi-millionaire ransoming Somali pirates. Nigeria did have a group threatening to shut down an Italian oil company for dumping waste in their community, and Uganda protested e-waste being dumped locally. Kenya, Somalia, and Ghana have officially complained to the UN about illegal trawlers. Somalia worked out a deal with Yemeni fishermen who were often caught trawling in Somalian waters. It seems most of the Somali coastal poaching has been by fellow African fishermen.

Hijacked ships are usually hundreds of miles out, not the 12 mile coastal territorial limit for Somalia, although initially hijackings were closer to shore, and blow me down, they were not fishing boats. Yachts and cruise ships are also targeted now. I guess success breeds escalating and expanding business. In the last 24 hours these extraordinary pirates have hijacked in the Gulf of Aden a Lebanese cargo ship, a Greek bulk carrier, and 2 Egyptian fishing ships (Egypt has to go through the Aden Gulf to get to the Indian Ocean, poaching or not).

Part of Captain Phillips Maersk Alabama cargo was food aid for Kenya. How does that pertain to dumping/trawling?

Where has the $100 million (preferably paid in crispy U$D) from piracy fiscal year 2008 been spent? Given to Somali officials for the cause or given to the Somali people? Me thinks not me landlubber friends.

Johann also says "Pirates were the first people to rebel against this world. Once they had a ship, the pirates elected their captains, and made all their decisions collectively. "

Yep Bubba, pirates were egalitarian, socialists. Never mind that such notables as Laffite, Hawkins, and those Barbary Johnny Depps also dealt in the slave trade, they were democratic rebels amongst one another, and a historian or two claim some pirates "took in escaped African slaves and lived with them as equals." Mighty white of 'em, aye Bubba matey?

And what would excuses be if not the usual 400 or 500-year-old excuse of "What I did was to keep me from perishing. I was forced to go a-pirating to live." Surely the gentleman o' fortune Bernie Madoff and lily-livered bonused executives feel the same way today - they were just forced to go a-livin' higher than ye average perishing pirate.

Try as I might me barnacle encrusted biscuit eaters, I cannot make the connection between kidnapping for ransom and legitimate "protest".

Reminds me of brothers in the '60s who robbed armored trucks and claimed it was for the "cause," or the SLA who kidnapped Patty Hearst and demanded $2 million in food ransom for the poor of LA. Many poor had enough sense to be horrified and refused the food because they valued human life more than a sack of ill-gotten groceries.

But, my spongy Bubba baggy pants, that was in the days before so many folks bought into the liberal/progressive idea of criminality is okay if committed by po' folk against rich folk. Yo ho ho.

Progressive Love

The idiocy of youth. Busting a few windows and hurling insults to topple the "capitalist" system - whoo hooo. What do these folks really want? I believe their motto is "social justice." Hmmm. Now what would a more just society entail?

A national healthcare system? Direly needed with the approaching 70% overweight/obese citizenry and associated health problems appearing at a younger age than ever before. The large number of drug seekers and hypochondriacs are plentiful. And the growing numbers of lifestyle "disabled" folks, addicts, slackers, octomoms, etc. who have floundered around their entire lives expecting others to pick up after them and clean up their messes. Not that the global corporatocracy will pay for all these sickly folks, no sirreeee, they will not. The shrinking middle class is expected to generate the tax dollars to cover these folks, for a more just society.

Quality education for one and all? Hmmm, how long has the government been promising quality education? This year alone our local high school has 3 times caught students having sex in the bathroom, 6 blowjobs on the bus, 25 sexting, 5 locker drug busts, and needing more tax dollars to enlarge the nursery for teen mommies (thank you Medicaid) who think they look so cute bringing infant carriers to school. Those teens who behave really badly are sent to the "alternative" school. Lesson? My 16-year-old granddaughter (who happens to be a virgin) can sit between 2 pregnant classmates discussing heartburn and frequent urination while she's trying to grasp the concepts of algebra. Can you see who is sacrificing here my pussface lemming brain comrades?

Human rights and equality. Oh Bubba, that's a hairy one. What are basic human rights/equality? Lets condense that to meaning: The right to personally pursue anything that does not harm others, and equality before the law - and you have these rights/equality simply by virtue of being human. The old right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And if your pursuit happens to cost me directly and indirectly?

Well, don't worry, according to progressive philosophy I'm not allowed to name it, blame it, or shame it - because that would be politically incorrect, however, I can be forced to contribute to the programs to aid whatever slovenly self-destructive pursuit you pursue, as long as you do not rob, beat, mug, maim, or murder me, it's not causing direct harm to me and mine. Right? And if you are incarcerated for anything I can sign a petition to free you because jails are full of guys and gals who didn't do it because cops frame everyone, and some who did commit the crime did so only because they were born in poverty, which is the 40-excuses-and-a-mule card.

We are all free to make our own anti-social bone-headed self-destructive choices and then demand and receive gratuitous pity from those in swanky offices doling out dollars to the slovenly and slattern living in squalor, and call it " social justice." Right?

Other platforms you must support somewhat to be a progressive: Gay marriage, single motherhood, gun control, save the planet, legalization of marijuana, be against capital punishment, and for many, many more programs from BigDaddy Guvteat - to furnish you all the milk of justice and equality you can stand.

Squeeze me again Uncle Sam, harder, harder.