This Is How Low We've Sunk

The pursuit of higher education and attending college, once a long-standing pillar of the American Dream, is now controversial. Because, you know, Obama supports it.

The tea bagger interviewed in the article scoffs at the Socialist Kenyan Usurper's librul elitist hogwash because, "we need garbageman, we need welders, carpenters." And that is certainly true. But the distinction here is that the President would seek to increase access to higher education so that people have the choice to either go to college or become a garbageman, welder, or carpenter. You shouldn't have to be relegated to a career as a garbageman simply because higher education is out of the question due to your economic means. 

And I would add that societies also need court jesters, clowns, and fools. And for that, we have the tea baggers. 

Proof is in the Racist Pudding

Perhaps you may have thought that I was being a meanie liberal ideologue when I said that Santorum and Gingrich's racist statements revealed how they truly feel, that it was not a misstatement, and that it was a rare glimpse into the depravity of their ignorant worldview. Did you think I was being a bit presumptive or hyperbolic?

QED:

JUAN WILLIAMS: Speaker Gingrich, you recently said black Americans should demand jobs, not food stamps. You also said poor kids lack a strong work ethic, and proposed having them work as janitors in their schools. Can’t you see that this is viewed, at a minimum, as insulting to all Americans, but particularly to black Americans? 

GINGRICH: No, I don’t see that.

Weird, no one could have predicted that Gingrich's overtly racist statement was intentionally and overtly racist.

Sexism Cuts Across All Parties

It goes without saying that I am no fan of Michelle Bachmann, but in her defense, this is total bull shit (via Digby):

After Bachmann left the race, several of her advisers pointed to sexism as a contributing factor. “We did believe that sexism — I use the stronger word misogyny — was at play,” said Peter Waldron, her faith outreach coordinator. 

Waldron said that several influential pastors called for her to drop out of the race, reasoning “that a female could not be a civil magistrate.” Johnson himself is a pastor at a central Iowa church.

Hooray! Look at all the progress that has been made since the 1960s! We have women running for president....and organizations full of old, misogynistic, white, male Christians telling them that there is no place for vaginas in the White House. Because you know, that is not what Jebus would have wanted.

This is not a left/right issue. No female should ever be subjected to this kind of regressive, ignorant treatment, and it is a sad reflection on the state of our lack of progress on gender equality. 

Greed is Good

And we wonder why Wall Street is one of the most highly subsidized industries in the country, or why presidents of both parties always fill their administrations with ex-banksters/Wall Street acolytes.

It's where the money's at. Average citizens do not contribute hundreds of thousands/millions of dollars, thus average citizens do not get cabinet positions or undue influence.

It's a Wingnut World After All

Obama can't do anything right ever - Disney World edition:

Maybe I am crazy, but I come from a world where it is a privilege, dare I say an honor, to hear a sitting president speak in person. I guess I am a little biased, because if it were George W. Bush speaking at Disney World, I would probably rather ride the Tea Cups until I puked up my intestines. But regardless of the speaker, there is still something unique and timeless about the opportunity to see an American president speak in person. Not so for the Fair and Balanced brigade at Fox, who automatically assumes that the Kenyan Socialist Usurper is shitting all over Real Murkins' vacations by his very presence. 

I know it's belaboring the obvious at this point, but Obama can't do anything right in these people's eyes. The fact that they still hide behind the laughable 'fair and balanced' label, and the fact that people actually buy that facade, is pathetic and laughable. 

Should the Media Strive for Higher Standards than TMZ?

I think this was the biggest story of last week (via Atrios):

I’m looking for reader input on whether and when New York Times news reporters should challenge “facts” that are asserted by newsmakers they write about. 

One example mentioned recently by a reader: As cited in an Adam Liptak article on the Supreme Court, a court spokeswoman said Clarence Thomas had “misunderstood” a financial disclosure form when he failed to report his wife’s earnings from the Heritage Foundation. The reader thought it not likely that Mr. Thomas “misunderstood,” and instead that he simply chose not to report the information. 

Another example: on the campaign trail, Mitt Romney often says President Obama has made speeches “apologizing for America,” a phrase to which Paul Krugman objected in a December 23 column arguing that politics has advanced to the “post-truth” stage.

Wow. The stenography of the media is one of those things the you know is going on, but when you see them openly admit it in print, it suddenly makes it much, much worse. I suppose this is progress though. The best comment by far on this revealing query comes from Glenn Greenwald:

That’s basically the equivalent of pondering in a medical journal whether doctors should treat diseases, or asking in a law review article whether lawyers should defend the legal interests of their clients, etc.: reporting facts that conflict with public claims (what Brisbane tellingly demeaned as being “truth vigilantes”) is one of the defining functions of journalism, at least in theory.

Exactly. People read the news to be informed, and for the purpose of having an independent third-party hold powerful interests and government to account. In most cases, neither of those things presently happen. And the fact that someone in Brisbane's position even has to ask this question just shows how far we've fallen. 

BOOOOOOOOOORING!

The always excellent Media Matters pillories our pedantic, infantile media's refusal to report on the Stop Online Piracy Act, a giant shit heap of a bill with significant negative ramifications to the web.

I'm sure it has nothing to do with the corporate control of our media overlords and the fact that many of them have a vested interest in this bill being passed. 

Fun with Math

Maybe next up we should have Holocaust related word problems.

Seriously, who the fuck are these people? On what planet would anyone consider this to be a good idea? Other than the south, I guess. I have just given up on expecting much of anything out of that shit hole part of the country.

The 'Black Friends' Defense

See? Newt's statements weren't racist, because he has black friends:

LAMOTHE: My question to you is, do think blacks represent an American problem. And if you don’t think that, when you start using blacks in general as a stepping stone or a punching bag – 

GINGRICH: I didn’t say that. I just want to say that frankly this makes me very irritated. The Democratic National Committe took totally out of context half of the sentence, OK? I mean clearly somebody who’s served with Colin Powell, who has served with Condaleeza Rice, I have a fairly good sense of the fact that African Americans have many contributions to America.

Conservatives love that line.

Getting Warmer

I have never claimed to understand climate change or really take a strong position on it, but it's kind of hard to ignore the fact that something is going on when you read about things like this:

Daily record highs have been set in Des Moines, Iowa (65 degrees), Rapid City, S.D. (73 degrees), International Falls, Minn. (46 degrees), St. Louis, Mo. (66 degrees) and Fargo, N.D. (55 degrees), to name a few locations. Although the record warmth subsides on Friday for the Plains, the mild air mass will bully its way eastward. We’re talking temperatures in cities such as Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Chicago, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Detroit and Cincinnati enjoying highs on the order of 10-to-20 degrees above average. High temperatures around 5-to-15 degrees above average will make it all the way to the East Coast including New York City, Washington, D.C. and Charlotte, N.C.

It's easy to focus on cold climates dealing with warmer temperatures, but here in Phoenix, we had 100 degree temperatures well into October last year. And 2012 isn't off to a great start either with the first week of January notching temperatures in the 80s. 

Or perhaps this is just another platform from which I can gripe more about the shitty weather in Arizona.