Big Oil And The Republican Party
Posted by Michelle Moquin on May 15th, 2013
Good morning!
From the Huff Po:
How Big Oil Uses the Republican Party to Subvert American Democracy
In a surprise move, the eight Republican members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee yesterday blocked a floor vote on President Obama’s nominee, Gina McCarthy, as EPA Administrator. In doing so the Republican senators broke their earlier promisadditione to move McCarthy’s nomination if she answered an unprecedented 1079 written questions, a quest she completed. Political observers assume the Republican roadblock is meant to derail or delay the implementation of a new EPA rule, promised by President Obama to finally regulate carbon pollution. The Republican ranking member, Senator David Vitter of Louisiana, orchestrated the double cross. Vitter is an unabashed mouthpiece for the petroleum industry and record breaking receptacle for petrodollars having received $1.2 million in oil company largesse during his public service career. With cash gushers of oily money cascading down their open gullets, the Republican leadership’s mercenary devotion to Big Oil shouldn’t shock us. However, the boldness of the party’s most recent assault on the public interest might cause us to ponder how GOP’s honchos’ knee jerk slavishness to petroleum interest has infected its rank and file.
The perversity of the modern conservative mind is displayed in two studies published last week. Those studies illustrate the extent to which the right wing has become the ideological sock puppet of Big Oil and the GOP’s army of right wing Christian fundamentalists oil industry foot soldiers. A peer reviewed National Academy of Sciences report shows that the label “energy efficient” on a product actually makes it less likely that self-identified conservatives will purchase that product. Why? Because morally twisted right wing orthodoxy has taken the “conserve” out of conservatism. Craven hatred of all things environmental has made the labels “clean,” “green” or “efficient” pariah among GOP acolytes. Conversely, dirty energy is patriotic and even “blessed.”
Big Oil’s Orwellian skill at employing the rhetoric of patriotism and emblazoning its enterprises with stars and stripes, has stitched the notion that conservation is synonymous with “anti-American” into the fabric of GOP talking points. In 2006, President George W. Bush’s press secretary Ari Fleischer answered a press query about whether President Bush believed in fuel efficiency standards for automobiles saying, “That’s a big ‘No.’” The President believes that it’s an American way of life, and that it should be the goal of policy makers to protect the American way of life. The American way of life is a blessed one. And we have a bounty of resources in this country… Conservation alone is not the answer.”
After a decade of this brand of oily claptrap from the industry’s political toadies and its talking heads on Fox News and hate radio, many conservative Americans now embrace the farcical presumption that buying and burning gas is a patriotic act. In 2008, as the oil industry raked in record profits by raking Americans with record prices at the pump, the party of the petro plutocrats proudly adopted Big Oil’s rallying cry as its mantra “Drill, Baby, Drill.”
By the way, Fleischer’s use of the term “blessed” to describe unconscionable profligacy and immoral waste reflect another GOP orthodoxy — the notion that God wants us to burn oil. A second study published this week by University of Pittsburgh Professor David Barker and Professor David Bearce of the University of Colorado found that a fundamentalist Christian belief in biblical End Times is a significant motivating factor behind Republican voter resistance to curbing climate change. According to Bearce and Barker, 76 percent of self-identified Republicans say they believe in the End Times. “Since the world is going to end at a predestined time anyhow,” their logic goes, “it would be heretical to curb our destructive appetites under the delusion that we can do anything about pushing back God’s ordained date.”
Anointing rapacious behavior with religious gloss is an old strategy for both right wing conservatives and the extraction industry. When a House Oversight Committee summoned Ronald Reagan’s first Secretary of Interior, James Watt, to explain his caper to sell off American’s public lands, waters and mineral rights to oil, mining and timber companies at what the General Accounting Office called “fire sale prices,” Watt, a former mining and oil company lawyer, retorted, “I don’t know how many future generations we can count on before the Lord returns.” Embracing his party line, along with its hook and sinker, Watt explained that environmentalism was a plot to “weaken America” and dismissed environmentalists as a “left wing cult which seeks to bring down the kind of government I believe in.”
Watt was an early proponent of Dominion Theology, the authoritarian Christian heresy that cites cherry-picked phrases from the book of Genesis to advocate man’s duty to subdue nature. His carbon industry alliances and Apocalyptical Christianity inspired Secretary Watt to set about dismantling his department and distributing its assets to his pals. His disciple and former employee, Gale Norton, another energy industry lawyer and lobbyists, would continue the chicanery when she succeeded Watt as Interior Secretary during George W. Bush’s administration. As Shakespeare observed, “The devil can quote Scripture to serve his own purposes.”
In reality, there is nothing patriotic, moral or religious about Big Oil. A storied history of perfidy and greed has distinguished these companies among the most treasonous and piratical of all American business enterprises. Halliburton’s decision to relocate to the Cayman Islands after fattening itself on $9 billion worth of inherently crooked no-bid, cost-plus contracts during the Iraq War is only one of many examples of their shaky loyalty to our country. Before it vaulted onto the bandwagon of patriotism, Texaco flew not “Old Glory” but the “Jolly Roger” over its Houston headquarters, proudly adopting the pirate flag as the emblem of a pirate industry.
The threats from global climate change and ocean acidification are only the tip of a melting iceberg. Not satiated with simply destroying the planet, the oil industry’s relentless greed has eroded American’s economic independence, imperiled our national security, and ruined our global economic leadership and moral authority.
America’s national security is rooted in a strong economy at home. As Republican oilman T. Boone Pickens has acknowledged, our deadly addiction to oil is the principal drag on American capitalism. Our nation is borrowing a billion dollars a day to purchase a billion dollars of foreign oil, much of it from nations that don’t share our values or that are outright hostile to our interests.
Our oil jones has us funding both sides of the war against terror! Big Oil has embroiled us in foreign wars supporting petty dictators who despise democracy and who are hated by their own people. The export of $700 billion dollars annually of American wealth has beggared our nation, which, a few short decades ago, owned half the wealth on Earth.
Add to these cataclysmic numbers, the $100 billion annual military cost of protecting oil infrastructure in the Persian Gulf, trillions spent on various oil wars over the past decade, billions more in economic injury from oil spills in Valdez, the Gulf of Mexico and in American rivers from the Hudson to the Kalamazoo to the Yellowstone, the massive damage done to the coast of Louisiana from local drilling companies which aggravated New Orleans’ destruction by Katrina, not to mention the hundreds of billions annually in externalized health care costs from illnesses caused by the oil industry.
If the oil industry had to pay the true costs of bringing its product to market, gas prices would be upwards of $12 per gallon at the pump, according to economist Amory Lovins, and most Americans would be running to buy electric cars.
With low cost disruptive technologies like cheap, fast and efficient electric vehicles, and solar and wind technologies poised to displace Big Oil, the industry is using its hold on the Republican Party to permanently embed itself in our economy while subverting science, American democracy, free market capitalism and our sacred belief in an ethical God.
********
Robert, RT: Of course I don’t object. I always appreciate what you have to share. And I know my readers do too. The floor is yours.
Blog me.
Peace & Love.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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May 15th, 2013 at 1:35 pm
18#(May 14)
Unbelievable! That would be my first thought. But knowing men, yes I’m one but the truth is this country is fucked up from the top down. That opinionated sometimes bigot, Robert,RT is basically right.
We white males have had it so good for so long that we have become arrogant in our running of this country. We have set this country adrift on the concept that white males can do anything they want to anyone else in this country.
We have made WOMEN in this country basically sex toys. So the one benefit we give to the OTW men is that they to as men can treat WOMEN as sex toys.
Why? not to give them anything but because it pleases us.
We need to face it, if we are going to take the credit for the good stuff that happens in this country we need to take the credit for the bad stuff. In this case that would mean taking responsibility for the top Brass in the military taking a cavalier attitude towards the sexual abuse of women.
The fact is that the military like the rest of this country is top down White male dominated. It seems that like Health Care, it will take a black president to rectify this situation.
It should be obvious that if a white president would do it, it would have been done by now. Let’s hope that the RAGS(racism, arrogance, greed, system)of my race doesn’t put too great an obstacle in front of him.
I voted for the man, but I don’t believe he is as tough as he needs to be to handle the job. Frankly, he needs to get rid of some of the sycophants he surrounds himself with and get some cutthroat take no prisoners White men to do the job.
I know you OTWs think I’m saying he can’t find qualified OTWs to do the job. But what I’m saying is he needs people who don’t give a damn about who he is only what’s in it for them if they fix this mess.
In other words, he needs people in there who will be willing to fire some people. White men will do that and if they are firing other white men, the country will accept it. I know that sounds bad, but you know it is the truth.
Oh, and Zen Lill, this two year widowed male is seriously looking for the right woman. I live in the areas you speak about, I haven’t seen you. I am 42, 6’2”, in very good shape(we may exercise at the same place).
I am a regular member of the Riviera Fitness Club(RFC) because I live within walking distance. I haven’t seen you there. I have checked you blog site so I know what you look like. No, I am not stalking you. Merely curious and it would be interesting chatting with someone whose opinions I have been reading for over a year now.
Looking forward to your summer pictorials
Michael.
May 15th, 2013 at 1:38 pm
Now the republicans don’t even have to even pretend they are making attempts to govern in a rational way. Government will be locked up for weeks, probably months for hearings. Republicans have proven they can’t govern when they are in power and refuse to participate when they are not. The teabaggers are all trying to outdo each other by being louder and more irrational than the last one that got in front of a mic. Anymore, that’s getting harder and harder to do.
May 15th, 2013 at 1:40 pm
It is so hypocritical that these same politicians screaming bloody murder were the same ones who wanted the reporters who leaked Bush’ warrantless wiretaps put in jail.
May 15th, 2013 at 1:42 pm
One thing with the Repubs, they are pretty constant in their immense dislike for Holder. After all he is a black man. The only one they hate more is of course the black man who is president.
May 15th, 2013 at 1:44 pm
Where was the MSM, the republican and the rest of white america when reporters were being jailed under Bush? When the IRS targeted the NAACP and other Democratic groups?
Where were they when Pat Tillman’s family needed them?
May 15th, 2013 at 2:08 pm
To those of you who claim to be down with Wayne Brady because he is black and Bill Maher isn’t, I say that’s your right because you are free to think what you want. But don’t get down on me because I support Bill Maher on his take of the pathetic Wayne Brady.
Now, he wants to get the black support while he disses black women who date Biil by calling them whores. Yet, the white and asian women who date him he demands respect for.
Well for my money, I’ll take the attitude of Bill Maher. You don’t get to disrespect this black woman because you are black.
My advice to any black woman who knee jerks support to Wayne Brady is to check out who you are supporting before you just go with color.
Alycedale
May 15th, 2013 at 2:19 pm
Yes they need to read about Bush the worst president in American history. An Nixon was definitely a bad one. Republicans are really reaching and its pathetic. What the DOJ did to AP is wrong (my opinion ) but that’s the law (patriot act). Since congress is so upset about it why don’t they REPEAL the patriot act. Until then they need to stop complaining.
May 15th, 2013 at 2:20 pm
Let’s see, you pass legislation (The Patriot Act) and give the executive branch insanely broad mandates. Then, you act shocked when there’s an overreach. Why hasn’t anyone interviewed Senator Feingold?
May 15th, 2013 at 2:21 pm
Obamas worst that Nixion? Seriously? Lets review.
Bengahzi – Been there – done that and we all have the tee shirt. please congress just read the Pickering report or here is an idea – call him in to testify
IRS – This happened 2 years ago – there is a full 52 page report and guess what – the man in charge of the IRS at the time this was going on was Shulman – a BUSH appointment. To somehow suggest the Obama administration had anything to do with this flys in the face of the actual facts. Oh and guess what congress – its your job to oversee the IRS, you ‘ve heard about the complaints from the tea baggers for the last 2 years so why haven’t/ or why didn’t you fix this problem long ago?
AP Probe – all about serious leaks of classified information about an live operation when the AP story broke last year. At the time the republicans (McCain) screamed find the leak – and really blamed the Whitehouse for the leak and they called for investigations. So the DOJ does and investigation and now what ?
we get complaints that its Nixion and Obama is the man behind all this. well I for one call BS out on this. Yes there is a sh#tstorm of stories out this week but looks like its all about distracting Amerians from our real problems..
May 15th, 2013 at 2:22 pm
Now I guess we understand why Obama has no patience for the press. They are all about sensationalism. Obama and Nixon shouldn’t be said in the same sentence let alone as a comparison.
May 15th, 2013 at 3:47 pm
Sexual violence in the U.S. military is a crisis.The Pentagon estimates that sexual assaults increased from 19,000 in 2011 to 26,000 in 2012. That’s 71 sexual assaults EVERY DAY, and in roughly 56% of cases, the victims are men.
Making matters worse, each branch of the armed forces has its own judicial system, and it’s currently legal for base commanders to overturn a jury’s guilty verdict, as happened at Aviano Air Force Base in February 2013.
The STOP (Sexual Assault Training Oversight and Prevention) Act takes the prosecution, reporting, oversight, investigation, and victim care of sexual assaults out of the normal military chain of command—which has proven grossly ineffective—and places jurisdiction in an autonomous Sexual Assault Oversight and Response Office.
That’s why I started a petition to the United States Congress, which says:
I stand with Congresswoman Jackie Speier in support of the Sexual Assault Training Oversight and Prevention Act (STOP Act) to end military rape.
Thanks!
–Congresswoman Jackie Speier
May 15th, 2013 at 3:56 pm
Hafa adai, Michelle,
It happens on Guam all too often:
———————————
A man is accused of bringing a woman to Guam with offers of a job only to sexually assault her in his bedroom when she arrived.
On May 10, police received a report of a woman at a Tumon restaurant. The woman told police she needed to “get away from her boss,” who was later allegedly identified as Dong Ill Kim, according to a magistrate’s complaint filed against Kim.
The woman told police Kim brought her to Guam for a job, but “she had to go through a trial period to see how she worked and if (Kim) liked her personality,” said the complaint.
About two days earlier, said the woman, Kim picked her up from the airport and took her to his office, which is also his home.
The following night, Kim took the woman out to dinner “as a welcome party” and then took her to a bar, said the complaint.
The woman then told Kim she “wasn’t feeling right” and wanted to leave, but Kim allegedly told her she had to pay for her plane ticket or she couldn’t leave.
Back at Kim’s house, the woman said, she tried to call a friend for the airfare, but Kim allegedly began to yell at her, then called the friend back and told the friend that the woman “was drunk and didn’t know what she was doing,” say court documents.
Kim then allegedly forced the woman into his room and forced her onto the bed. He then is accused of lying next to her. When the woman resisted, he allegedly replied that it was “your fault that you stimulated me to do this.”
He then allegedly molested the woman. She later told police she wasn’t sure if she was raped.
According to court documents, the woman attempted to contact a former employee of the suspect to see if she was also victimized.
When police escorted the woman to the man’s house, he allegedly told police he never touched her. Through an interpreter, he then told police he didn’t want to proceed any further without a lawyer.
May 15th, 2013 at 4:05 pm
Safe Alternatives to NSAIDs
by Dr. David Williams
In the May issue of my newsletter, Alternatives, I answered a question from a reader about whether or not I have changed my views on aspirin, considering it has been found to prevent heart attacks, cancer, and even Alzheimer’s disease.
Not to mention, millions of people regularly use aspirin and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen and naproxen sodium for pain relief.
My answer is still no—my opinion of aspirin or other NSAIDs has not changed. I still don’t feel the benefits outweigh the risks, and I don’t recommend its use.
NSAIDs are known to cause bleeding. It could be bleeding in the stomach or other areas of the gastrointestinal tract, which can lead to ulcerations that can actually be life threatening.
It could be bleeding in the retina of the eye, which can lead to macular degeneration. Or it can be bleeding of the gums. And one of the latest findings out of Holland shows that taking aspirin on a regular basis increases the incidence of micro-bleeding in the brain—which can lead to micro-strokes.
Increasing the chance of permanent blindness, internal ulcerations, and micro-bleeding in the brain are risks I’d rather not take. Fortunately, if you’re looking for effective pain relief without any of these dreadful side effects, you have several great options.
For arthritis, turmeric, capsaicin and bromelain are terrific therapies. Turmeric also works for muscle sprains and strains.
For fibromyalgia, malic acid and magnesium can be effective. Magnesium is also particularly effective for migraines.
And for muscle cramps, try Traumeel and DMSO.
May 15th, 2013 at 4:12 pm
I was a Republican most of my life. I now find them so despicable, I will never vote for another Republican for anything….NEVER EVER
May 15th, 2013 at 5:30 pm
The underlying theme is a lot of (most) men are not being taught how to behave towards girls/women, certainly few girls/women are respected as people (and ‘she’ had better be smart AND good looking, please), nor are they learning anything good about women in general (should be some reverence in there somewhere bc we give you people life! And as parents’ some food, shelter, clothing and love…not to mention guidance and education, etc…none of which should go overlooked bc you feel short changed bc your mother isn’t perfect), nor do they physically protect or at least step up when necessary on behalf of a woman in crisis (as in a rape/gang rape where it would take one real man to step up and say ‘WTF are you thinking, stop this’), suddenly all women deserve trashy treatment to the point of violence being okay with everyone including young girls who just don’t know bc it’s everywhere?
&…it is just freaking pervasive…and sick…
Something is very wrong in this world when we NEED a violence against women Act or STOPS to prevent horrific behavior, when are men going to step up and stop acting like freaking savages after their slaughter/prey? and who is the creator of ads like these that think this crap about women is ok? I’m ready to write and boycott all of them.
http://loveyourbody.nowfoundation.org/offensiveads.html
Look whatever people want to share behind their closed doors is fine w/me as long as it’s mutual consent, this BS that’s being sold as what women should expect and want is ridiculous…violence, hard core porn moves, no is the new yes, it’s all based on men thinking that they take what they want and women will just like it (and women, please stop allowing this…)
Ok, I’ll get off my soapbox now.
Now, addressing all the good men here on MM blog, I have one question: when are you going to get ON yours?!
Luv, Zen Lill
May 15th, 2013 at 5:39 pm
Robert, RT:
Sir:
You are not entirely correct when you say the “We” was for white men. You are correct when you say it was for white men only. Frankly, a few of us who were Deputies for our particular states( I was the only one representing New York) had reservations about that fact.
We knew if it could be proved that we were not white we could lose our share of privileges. But as I was saying although the “We” did apply only to white men, it didn’t apply to ALL white men. For the most part when it was written the “We” only applied to landed white men.
You could counter that even for those white men it didn’t apply to at the time, they could unlike, non white men, hope to acquire the means to qualify for that “We” privilege.
If I may toot my own horn. I not only helped draft a Constitution bold enough in promise to inspire wild unprincipled men to risk their lives and livelihoods to take on the british, I constructed a banking system that enabled those 13 states to compete on an equal level with those seasoned European nations for trade and prosperity.
As bold and inspiring as the Constitution was, without the means to finance a new country, it would have folded under the economic pressures the big three were using to exploit, divide and conquer our fragile confederation.
There was very little desire among most of us to form a Union and certainly no desire to to make it one in which a federal government would supersede the powers of the individual little dictators in that room.
Most of them thought they were using the collective might of the masses to give them a little fiefdom, 13 to be exact. A few of us, Ben Franklin, William Patterson, Richard Bassett, and Robert Morris did have the intention to make this a Union, one which could be lead from a federal level. We despised and feared the power of those determined despots, because we knew that they were only interested in the power they would attain once their colonies became states they controlled.
AH
May 15th, 2013 at 6:40 pm
http://tapol.org/news/opinion-why-west-papua-closed-foreign-journalists
May 16th, 2013 at 7:37 am
When was the last time you’ve heard a Republican advocate for transparency in anything? Cheney conducted energy policy behind closed doors with Big Oil and Big Coal.
Republicans are against every social program and have vowed to eliminate abortions throughout the land, while crowing about their support for individual liberties and freedom.
It is no wonder at all that corporations are using the Republican Party and the right-wing Tea Party faction to subvert any concept of democracy. All in the name of freedom and small government. Ask yourself: how big will government have to be to police half of the population who may want access to family planning?
May 16th, 2013 at 7:39 am
GOP Congress and Dubya pushed for tax breaks for companies using gas-guzzling SUVs…..small business leaped on it….
then gas prices went up and the companies were stuck with money LOSER vehicles….while Big Oil cleaned up on profits.
“I believe in the idea of amnesty for those who have put down roots and lived here, even though sometime back they may have entered illegally”—Ronald Reagan, 1984 Debate with Walter Mondale
May 16th, 2013 at 7:40 am
BTW, there is nothing that Big Oil wants….that the ditto-heads and Hannitized won’t support.
Nothing….for people who claim to be “independent thinkers” and “skeptical of Government”???….they believe ANYTHING that the American Petroleum Institute tells them.
“I believe in the idea of amnesty for those who have put down roots and lived here, even though sometime back they may have entered illegally”—Ronald Reagan, 1984 Debate with Walter Mondale
May 16th, 2013 at 7:42 am
History tells us that the first car was electric, with gas powered second. The owners of the electric car combine decided to make electric cars for the wealthy and dressed them up with goodies that wealthy people appreciate, thus the price was higher than average people could afford, so cheap gas-powered, filthy, polluting cheaper cars were built for the vast middle class.
The oil men followed closely the rise of the dirty, polluting gas powered car and profited it up to untold trillions of dollars by outlawing anything over certain MPG and hiking up gas prices. They also bought millions of acres of public lands in leases which they alone will profit from when they start to drill it into yet another environmental catastrophe.
May 16th, 2013 at 7:49 am
Until military commanders start losing their commands when they allow sexual crimes to go unpunished it will continue.
May 16th, 2013 at 7:58 am
I agree Zen Lill. We should be revered more. Oh, I’m looking forward to your summer wardrobe also.
May 16th, 2013 at 8:09 am
The right wing has forgotten the very things that have made America great and proud, our incredible natural resources, our land, air, and water. Shame on them! Thank you for all of your hard work Robert Kennedy Jr., Solidarity!
May 16th, 2013 at 8:10 am
Applause! The under-currents of the big corp oil industry are truly coming to light. Their target is not necessarily Gina – it is the EPA and President Obama in general! Americans are waking up – thanks for a very blunt and well written article.
May 16th, 2013 at 8:12 am
The GOP has become an evil dictatorship. They want corporations to tell us what to do, when to start a war, how to make personal profit for politicians and businesses-off it.
They want no one to regulate, protect consumers/people from air and substances that cause cancer/asthma/emphysema, water that has dangerous bacteria/toxins, food that is spoiled/contaminated/ecoli-ridden.
The only hate is from the Corporate Tyrants, that want to make money and create disease and disaster to accomplish their goals. The Kochs, are just two examples.
May 16th, 2013 at 8:14 am
Just as an aside from this expat living in Austria:
Realizing that its horsepower addiction/adoration is becoming a liability, Germany’s BMW is finally building a lightweight e-car to come off the assembly lines yet this year (including carbon-plastic panels manufactured in the Pac NW of the US).
The writing is on the wall, America – time to finally make the beneficial transition to clean, green energy and transport and quit acting like it’s gonna be a bad thing!
May 16th, 2013 at 8:15 am
Big Energy Companies are supported by Big Pro-Business – no matter how it effects the lands, water ways, air ways, wildlife, safety of any kind.
Republicans/GOP have always supported Energy Companies because Campaign contributions are off the table for how much, and when. These large companies are under the category now “Too Big to Fail”, because of the GOP, and sooner then later, they will destroy oceans, water ways, and the very air and water we need to sustain life in the USA. Only the very rich will be able to
live well and high..
May 16th, 2013 at 8:21 am
There are 70 rapes per day, 3 per hour in the military. It is only now going to be looked into because it is now out that 50,000 men have been raped.
May 16th, 2013 at 8:25 am
The two wars started by Bush et al have probably created more terrorists than anything else in history. You don’t win the hearts and minds of people by invading their country and killing their families.
May 16th, 2013 at 8:30 am
My white sisters here in North Carolina are just plain idiots. They continue to support white men who do such crazy things as passing a law making women have to ask their employer to get birth control pills.
Zen Lill, I’m afraid that the men will never take us serious as long as we continue to allow them to be our boss.
May 16th, 2013 at 8:34 am
Has anyone else noticed the migration of the puny chest thumping, right wing extremists to this blog lately?
Pretty clear that the word got out in the darkest recesses of the internet that they should try to highjack Michelle’s blog.
Man, it must suck to be insignificant but feel like your ‘voice’ actually matters.
May 16th, 2013 at 8:34 am
I hope what’s in store for Obama’s second term is impeachment then prison, for the death of four of my fellow citizens.
May 16th, 2013 at 8:36 am
Conservatives have used the justice dept. and the irs to target liberals. They also commonly use their legislative power to target women and minority rights as well. “Selective outrage seems to be such a thing to behold if you’re a hypocritical rightist.”
May 16th, 2013 at 8:39 am
I usually agree with Rachel however, we disagree on this issue. People and I guess Rachel too have very short memories and attention spans.
Congress asked for an investigation into the May 7, 2012 leak of “sensitive” information about a CIA operation in Yemen. A reporter from the AP leaked the story which, put the operation in serious jeopardy.
That is what started this whole thing………Congress. Dianne Finestein in particular.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence committee, said Wednesday that the leak was “within the most serious leaks because it definitely endangered some lives.”
Feinstein said it was her understanding that the information gathering did not focus on the “content of phone calls,” but rather “to see who reporters have spoken to, that somebody did provide this information with respect to this bomb.”
Get off the Presidents case on this one!
May 16th, 2013 at 10:14 am
Michael, did you know that saying you are a widower is the biggest lie being told on on-line dating sites, just a random fact, but I believe you, and sorry for your loss.
I’m in and around the village regularly…it’s my ‘hood…see you around?
- ZL
PS good men of MM blog, I’m patiently waiting…
May 16th, 2013 at 10:38 am
Zen Lill, I am a single parent of 2 teenage girls. They know their mother has passed away. That is good enough for me.
Your statistic implies that being a widower gives a man an advantage over being divorced. I would gladly accept being divorced if that meant my wife could return to the living. I am quite certain her daughters would also agree.
I am looking when I am out. But I haven’t seen you. Perhaps I will get a T-shirt with Michelle’s logo and web address on it and wear it around town.
Michael
May 16th, 2013 at 10:47 am
Did anyone hear about the tornado that hit Granbury, TX? I have lived there for 6 years. It could not have happened to a more deserving bunch of bigots.
Every day I am reminded by one bigot or another that I am not american because I do not look white. How many times have I been asked, “Where are you from?”
I suffer racist slurs and other forms of discrimination from people in this town from whites in this town almost every day. Today I smile as I walk and see what God has done to these evil creatures.