Thursday, January 21, 2010

More hysterical hand-wringing...

...courtesy of SCOTUS.
WASHINGTON — Government cannot restrict corporations from spending money to influence political campaigns, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday in an opinion that immediately reverberated across the political landscape and drew strong criticism from the White House.

The decision upends the political battlefield in time for November's high-stakes congressional elections. It also is likely to affect state contests. Twenty-two states prohibit corporate spending in state candidate elections, and two more, New York and Alabama, impose limits on such spending.

The 5-4 decision rolls back at least two decades of restrictions on what unions and corporations can spend in elections and frees special interest groups to unleash a flood of advertising to sway the outcome of races close to elections.
I have a question to those who are pissing their pants over this: Are you people stupid, or just amazingly naive?  Are you trying to tell me that large corporations and organizations have not been throwing money into campaigns and buying candidates for years?  Who the hell do you think is funding all the lobbyists in DC?  The only thing I see any different about this is that now you might be able to see them buying and selling their political pawns. 

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It now appears that a teenage Orthodox Jew saying prayers is indistinguishable from a terrorist hijacker.  Evidently, tefillin can be mistaken for weapons or bombs.  What kind if idiots are running security on these planes?  If this is their idea of sniffing out terrorists, then we may as well give up now.


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Seems there are some people here in the states who think that the  US government is being remiss because their relatives in Haiti have been missing since the earthquakes started.  They feel that everyone should drop everything they are doing and concentrate only on finding their family members.  I realize that parents are worried about their children, but it's not like the people down there have magic wands.  There is a lot of confusion and chaos, and rescuers can only do so much.  So to those people that are making all the noise, STFU and quick acting like a bunch of arrogant selfish assholes; you give Americans a bad name.

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Not sure what this list shows about my mood, any thoughts?

         "Autumn Leaves" by Cannonball Adderley/Miles Davis
         "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" by Gordon Lightfoot
         "Comin' Back to Me" by Jefferson Airplane
         "Georgia on My Mind" by Ray Charles
         "Magic" by Olivia Newton-John
         "Walk on By" by Leroy Van Dyke
         "Homeward Bound" by Simon & Garfunkel
         "Africa" by Toto
         "Looking Back" by John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers
         "Two out of Three Ain't Bad" by Meat Loaf

The last two songs below:

An older song from one of the great blues bands.



Not the most photogenic guy in the world, but he sings right from his heart.

3 comments:

AlanDP said...

Never really like Olivia once she went "pop." I like her older "country" stuff like "Please Mister, Please."

"Africa" has always been a favorite.

Nate said...

Bob, thanks for the blast from the past. I'm pretty certain I wore out more than 1 8 track of that album in my younger days. I always loved the emotion of that entire story.

BobG said...

AlanDP: some of her pop stuff I liked, some I didn't.
Nate: not too many remember the old 8-track like we do.