JUMBO SHRIMP & OTHER OXYMORONS

We are all familiar with an oxymoron or two, (click to link) or perhaps fifty.

The ones we readily know are simple terms likes jumbo shrimp or the Great Depression.

But there are hidden ones that we hear all the time and fail to notice their inherent absurdity such as Government Intelligence.

Here are a few more modern ones:

LIPA – Long Island Power Authority – which has none or chooses not to use it if it does!

NIFA – Nassau County Interim Finance Authority – Which again has none and doesn't seem to care!

Pro-Life – Well, not all life, just the ones we want to be 'Pro' for. This group opposes the Pro Choice movement and chooses life only for an unborn fetus OVER THE LIFE OF THE MOTHER! (Their name should be changed to NO CHOICE!)

The Heritage Foundation – Whose? A group that cares not for America’s heritage but only that of a few wealthy anti-government regulations wealthy business owners.  Understanding that the America we know was founded and built by aliens and slaves so to deny that fact would be to deny our heritage!

Family Research Council – The name implies they are looking into all things that make up families when in fact they are interested only in families of traditional white Anglo-Saxon heterosexuals (preferably with lots of money!)

American Family Association - Very anti-Founding Fathers’ idea of an America free from religion in government they advocate a full return to the bible as law! They should remove the first word from their name or add ‘Church Going’ after it.

Citizens United – Who are they kidding? Clearly this group usurps all the power it can from the hands of the average citizen by making sure money and only large sums of it controls government. The 'citizens' they speak of are corporations which, contrary to morons on the Supreme Court ARE NOT PEOPLE!

Eagle Forum – The symbol of America is the Eagle so using the bird’s name in their title makes you think they are 100% for America! But they advocate NO government in their lives. They don’t have a clue!

Freedom Works – Sounds like a good thing except when you realize they want total freedom from taxes which would basically de-fund America! Oh, and like most Conservative groups they are against the Environmental Protection Agency since it costs money to operate. They’d rather die from pollution with money than give a little back so that all Americans could live longer! In essence the way this group uses the term freedom does not work!

Legal Reform – This is advocated by the US Chamber of Commerce and sounds fair, but a look at the agenda proves otherwise. The group wishes to remove all litigation against big business so that they can run roughshod over individual rights and pollute as they wish in order to create more wealth for themselves and their friends! It should say illegal reform.

Any GOP led Hearing: The current controlling political party in Congress has made a habit of making believe the hearings they convene and investigations they fund are legitimate when in fact they are complete farces. The witch hunts they utilize are meant only to bolster their power over the majority of the country and ensure their reelections.

And finally two of my personal favorites that need no explanation (but I will comment nevertheless):

Jews for Jesus (If you are then you are not!
and the most obvious oxymoron in America today,
Fox News.

All That Ailes Us

There appears to be a debate over whether or not Fox News contains any news or is merely a propaganda arm of the 'right.'
Frankly I do not like Fox News as anyone who has ever visited this blog or heard me speak or for that matter has a brain will know.
But I still believe that they have a place in the world.
After all this is America and we do allow free speech along with our many other freedoms.
And on this Fourth of July I certainly will not be the one to argue against freedom and ours is great!
But with great freedom comes great responsibility, sorry Spidey.
And the responsibility lies with all of us to know the difference between fair and balanced news reporting and out and out self-serving propaganda.
One cannot stop fear mongering but one can recognize it for what it is!
One caveat for the Fox viewer re the whole 'free speech' thing is that we do not allow the yelling of "Fire" in a movie theater when there is in fact no fire to run from.  That inciting to riot thing annoys people!
There will always be prejudice against anyone 'not us' but education and the use of a brain could reduce the incumbent hate it produces.
I love using Will Rogers' famous, "I never met a man I didn't like" line to show that we should get to know someone before deciding we don't like him!  (Of course Mr. Rogers never met someone like Andrew Breitbart.)
There will always be greedy people hell bent on getting ahead at others' expense.  But knowing unbridled greed for what it is may help you not get burned a second time.
Even "W" knew the "Fool me once" phrase.  Well, at least he almost knew it!  (His buddy, the infamous disgusting turd blossom Rove knew it far too well!)
The article to which I link at the top is biased against Fox.  The writer will tell you that he is merely pointing out tactics used by the quasi news corporation to get you to believe his lies as truth.  Unfortunately all too many people have already fallen into the trap of listening only to Fox for their daily dose of delusional dogma and drama.
Hey I like many different comedy channels and watching Fox once in a while can be fun.
Where else can you see a grown man making faces, screaming and ranting with a terribly bad fake accent point out that the ills of all mankind are being caused by illegal aliens?  Okay, you can't do that anymore but Beck will be replaced, trust me.
So the problem in America now is how to convince these people to open their minds, broaden their horizons and use their remotes for the good of mankind.
I am not proposing that we make CNN our only source for the dissemination of news but that we ask everyone to understand that there are other points of view out there and they must be given thought.
As for Fox and its head 'disseminater' I read many of the comments left on the blog post I allude to here and left shaking my head.
I felt it necessary to add my 1½¢ to the ridiculous argument in the spirit of the Fourth and for your amusement I copied it below
But don't take my word for any of this - do some research and fact check my words.
Then for goodness sake change the channel once in a while!

Partners in Crime:
Ailes - Nixon - Rove
Ailes & Rove - Separated at birth?

Debate all you like but the best argument against a 'fair and balanced' moniker for Fox was given by the fear mongering BS artist himself!  Richard Nixon asked his people to come up with some bogus stories and put them 'out there' for people to read and make their own minds up as to their veracity.  Many of Nixon's people rejected the idea (ah what a simpler time it was.)  But one of his aides, one Roger Ailes, yup that Roger Ailes told Nixon that he thought it was a fantastic idea.  He basically said that if you could place enough false stories with a touch of truth in them in the media you could control the minds of the electorate.

And the rest is history!

On the whole Fox News is as fair and balanced as is the state owned news media of North Korea without the show of weapons.  But their weapons are more insidious since they are hidden within innuendo and inference and catchy and misleading phrases such as "Death Panels."

The only way to get a truly fair and balanced view of the world is to listen to all sides, including Fox and then do a little research on your own.

If you can do that then you will be able to use your brain to make decisions rather than having it washed for use by Ailes.

But as always this is just my opinion, I could be wrong. (Sorry Dennis.)

Vicious vs. Precious

One of the most frustrating things in life is the feeling of helplessness.  For example when we know something bad is about to happen but we are unable to effect a change.

It is akin to watching an impending car accident with no way to warn the drivers.

Or how about hearing someone tell a lie and knowing that they themselves realize they are lying!

This one is particularly irksome when nobody ever seems willing to point out their lie.

It is this last example that is frustrating Americans or at least middle class Americans when it comes to our political leaders these days.

Many of these talking heads use sound bites to convey a message that they probably do not believe themselves.  They do so for political expediency.  They know the message will stick.

A few years back a candidate for the office of President used a ridiculous ad on television that showed his opponent riding an ever turning ‘sailboard’ (similar to the one shown here) to describe the man as a “flip-flopper.”  He claimed that the guy said one thing one time and then changed his mind to say something else later.

The odd thing is the message worked and the lying candidate was able to squeak into office, with the help of a few other oddities but that’s for another time.

But the ‘flip-flop’ charge is absurd.

Sans flight suit W claims victory!

Suppose the President is following a policy that he or she realizes at a later date is wrong?  For example say the President starts a war for a reason that turns out to be an out and out lie.  Would we want that leader to ‘stay the course’ or would we expect him to take a step back and change direction?

I certainly hope it would be the latter choice lest many lives be lost unnecessarily.

Flip-flopping goes with the territory of being human.  Information helps us make decisions and wrong information clouds our judgment.

But the fact that telling lies and saying what we think the listener wants to hear gets us elected to office means that lying is not only here to stay but is an integral part of the process.

Wouldn’t it be refreshing to have a truthful politician?

The odds of that happening are about the same as me winning the Kentucky Derby - without a horse to ride – barefoot – in the rain – at night - blindfolded.

So we are stuck listening to a never ending procession of inane reasons why the economy is the other guys fault.

And that brings me to the current pressing argument about taxes.

For years the Republican Party has been helping the wealthiest people of the country find loopholes in the tax structure as well as pushing for even more tax breaks with every session of Congress.

The argument is a simple one, in more than one way; “The wealthy create jobs and hire people so they must have tax breaks to give them more money with which to do so.”

That and ‘I’ll respect you in the morning’ are probably two of the biggest lies you will ever hear in your lifetime. (For men the latter is probably the biggest lie.)

We are stuck in a vicious cycle that has the wealthy moving farther into the financial stratosphere while the poor and middle class head toward poverty.

But there is still a chance to turn that vicious cycle into a precious one.

America needs this to happen.

We must take the bull by the horns (not the tail) and face the problem.

Here is a fantasy involving a high ranking member of the Republican Party, for ease of use I choose John Boehner talking questions at a news conference after being given a shot of sodium pentothal:

Reporter: Sir, do you feel that the Bush tax cuts should be continued for all Americans?

Boehner: Absolutely.

R: Really?  For every American? Even those making over a million dollars a year?

A rare photo of Boehner
without his signature
orange glow.

B: Of course. (He takes out a card from his pocket and reads.) The wealthy people in this country create jobs and if we keep stealing money from them they won’t have enough left to hire anyone. And the uncertainty of the Obama tax law is killing their incentive. And without knowing how much they will have to pay for the constitutionally illegal Obamacare health insurance policies how can they hire new workers?  The last election gave us a mandate and the people spoke and we heard them and we want to help them.  It is the policies of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid that are stagnating this great nation and the Barney Franks who are trying to turn our wonderful wealthy citizens into demons. They should be lauded as great people who will turn this country around and make it the greatest nation in the world once again and that’s why…

R: EXCUSE ME SIR? Are you okay?

B: What?  Huh?  Of course I am.  What do you mean?  Why do you ask?

R: Well your eyes seemed to glaze over there for a bit and your speech started to slow near the end of your rant.

B: (Confused and sweating profusely) I’m fine.

R: Glad to hear that.  So now I’d like to get back to the issue at hand.  And if you wouldn’t mind I’d like you to answer with just a yes or a no.  Do you think you can handle that?

B: I suppose, I mean yes.

R: First I ask that you put away the cliff notes.

(B places the folded card back in his pocket.  At this point the drug has finally taken hold and the Congressman’s voice becomes monotone.)

R: Thank you.  I’m going to put forth two scenarios. I want you to state which one works better, okay?

B: Yes.

R: First one: We keep the Bush tax cuts going for all, allowing the wealthiest people to continue to keep nearly all their money as they have been doing for the last ten years.  We then hope they will start to spend some on hiring new workers who in turn will use some of their new salary to buy the products that the wealthy business owners produce even though to date they have not done so nor show signs of wanting to do so as yet.  Okay, that’s the first one.  Can you remember that while I tell you the second one?

B: Yes.

R: Instead of giving the wealthy a continued gift we continue the tax cuts only for the lower or middle class worker. In other words people with incomes of say $250K to $300K per year or less.

Going back to the pre-Bush tax rate on the wealthy, an undisputed time of national prosperity, will afford the government enough money to start fixing the nation’s infrastructure, something the Republicans used to feel was important.

The people hired to fill the newly created jobs will suddenly have an income and extra money to spend.

The spending spurs businesses to produce more and in effect allows them to make more profits, hiring more workers to cover the new orders.

The cycle continues as all involved are now making more money and as a result paying more in taxes which in turn will go toward the government’s bottom line.

This then would aid in lowering the National Debt.  And a lower deficit is another supposed pet project of the Republicans.

So in the long run which scenario do you think would work better for the country and every citizen as a whole?

B: The second one.

R: Thank you sir, that’s all.

A loud roar of elation comes from the room as the reporters joyously leave to celebrate an unexpected productive press conference.

Angry McConnell about to
plant one on Boehner.

John Boehner is greeted by Mitch McConnell who promptly punches him squarely in the nose while the rest of the Republican Party members present at their Waterloo yell and shout that he has really screwed things up.

Multi-national corporations go into closed door meetings to decide how to spin the fiasco.

Fox News who understandably switched to a repeat of “The Best of NASCAR” during the press conference gets ready to report that they have evidence of an imposter being planted in a John Boehner costume.

Andrew Breitbart, at the behest of Roger Ailes, is already working on a fake documentary showing the above to be true.

And somewhere an adviser is translating all that just happened into one-syllable words for Sarah Palin.

Fox the Cable and Power!

The following is an entry by a guest reader without a blog of his own currently.

I will not name the source but rather state it is an intelligent affected former viewer of shows on Fox who has seen the light!

The foreign Australian/Saudi Arabian controlled News Corp is conductng an experiment to measure the extent in which it can manipulate the future of the US.

I am referring to the Australian Rupert Murdoch family, with 38% ownership in the Company, and Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the second largest equity owner behind Murdoch with holdings valued in excess of $2 billion.

The experiment, currently in progress is on a relatively small scale in which just a mere nine to 12 million innocent third party Americans are being used as hostages to create leverage for News Corp as it tests its ability to bully US media companies and influence Washington policies as it pursues its own interests and the interests of Australia and Saudi Arabia.

I am not referring to the heavily biased Fox News which publicly claims to be fair and even, cynically offering a 'we report, you decide' motto nor am I referring to the millions Rupert Murdoch, the Murdoch family, and News Corp has spent this year in supporting right wing causes.

Our recent 5 to 4 Supreme Court  decision that corporations have the same rights as individuals, allowing corporate money to flood the political marketplace has facilitated this new form of democratic corruption, empowering News Corp.

The experiment I am referring to involves News Corp's outrageous demand that New York and Tri-state based Cablevision's annual retransmission fee to Fox TV be increased from approximately $70 million to $150 million.

While Fox's demand is negotiated, Fox has pulled the plug on its broadcasts otherwise aired on Cablevision, affecting three million homes.

News Corp knows their demnand is unreasonable and has thus refused Cablevision's offer for binding arbitration.

This has nothing to do with money and is all about power. To further extend its power, News Corp has aired public announcements advising Cablevision customers who wish to watch Fox TV to switch carriers, pointing the way to Direct TV, Verizon, or a simple antennae since Fox TV channel 5 is carried free on airwaves leased to them by the U S Government.

Perhaps the our FCC should give News Corp its own ultimatum; return Fox 5 et al to Cablevision while you negotiate fees by October 25 or we will revoke your transmission bands.

Foreign ownership of critical media and public utilities is not typically considered to be in the interest of National welfare.

Serious consideration of the potential consequences of foreign interests controlling our media (the News Corp), our gas utiities (i.e. National Grid), and electric utilities (i.e J-Power, Iberdrola) should be high on our Government's to do list.

Wonderfully said by a concerned citizen.

Without government oversight the owners of the Foreign Fox Family of networks will continue to inch it's way into our government until it will be too late to turn it around.  And then, heaven help us!

Fact, Fiction or Fictionary

It appears as though the dictionary is heading for the scrap heap!  On-line versions are so prolific that the Oxford English Dictionary will soon dwindle and die.
At least the printed version will no longer be available although you will still be able to find the words you need and print them on your own.
But is this a good thing or a bad thing?
Or is this a thing at all?
Only time will tell but as much as I hate to see something so revered go by the wayside I must admit I find myself rarely going to the hard copy when the 'ethereal' is always at my fingertips.  And with the continued assault of hand held WiFi connected portable devices the printed word is losing its battle more and more every day.
I suspect that E-Readers will soon have an "app" that allows you to highlight a word in a 'book' you are reading and request its meaning from some e-dictionary somewhere out there.
In this world where technology says, 'If you can dream it you can make it happen' the sky is the limit.
But 'caveat emptor' baby, or as modern guys say, 'careful what you wish for.'
When the hard copies of the printed word are no longer available how can we be sure that the digital word is accurate and concrete.
Given how easy it is for people to deny - deny - deny even though the things they are denying are on tape imagine what will happen when a definition is altered in the e-world of the not so distant future.  Suddenly everyone will be searching for a rare hard copy of Orwell's "1984."
If you don't think the scenario of dynamic definitions is imminent you are sadly mistaken.  The road down that path already has footprints trod on it.
Fox News has altered the meaning of the second word in its title with their non-stop obfuscation and fiction as fact methods.
They and their friends have created what I call a "Fictionary" and use or abuse the definitions therein with every tale they spin.
But even though they appear to have almost unlimited funding they are still only one voice.  Imagine when that voice is the only one you hear.
Wikipedia ran into such problems of altered or undocumented definitions and had to come up with a method for validation.  Can we expect others in the future to diligently do the same?
Relying on others to fact check can be dangerous but even with the world on the internet and the internet at our fingertips how many of us take the time to delve into a story?  There is just not enough time to do it all.
So even though the Oxford English Dictionary is going the way of 8 track tape players and polyester green leisure suits (good riddance to both of those by the way) we might be wise to keep a copy safely hidden in a humidity controlled room for future generations.

Not Even a Pretty Face

It seems that we are allowed to make up our own words according to the oft 'refudiated' yet learned scholar from Wasilla.
Or we may give new meanings to old ones according to the Google-master of Fox, Gretchen Carlson.

Ignominious ignorant
ignoranus

So in that spirit I would like to coin a new one for the latter mentioned moron from the fake news channel that is partially owned by terrorists" (See two posts down - Final Fix for Fux @ Fox)
Gretchen Carlson is an IGNORANUS!
It means she, like her fellow TV personalities on Fox knows nothing and continually has her head up her ass!

Final Fix For Fux @ Fox

If there are any people out there who still think Fox News is a news organization please help them.  They are either in serious need of psychiatric help or are members of Al Qaeda.

Jon Stewart and his fantastic crew at the Daily Show gave the definitive answer to the Fox news question in this 9 minute piece.  It is a must see for all Americans.  Oh hell, all humans!

If anyone is still wondering about terrorist organizations funding so-called American corporations they won't be after viewing this!

Charlie Brown Never Gets to Kick the Ball!

Like a "B" movie rerun the Democrats are trying to figure out how they fell for another cheap political trick hurled at them by the scum on the 'right' side of the aisle.
Taking an old video with Ms. Shirley Sherrod explaining a key moment in her life's development and editing out some key parts of her speech some low-life criminal type by the name of Andrew Breitbart made it sound as though this caring woman was instead a terrible racist.
Breitbart, who himself is obviously a racist and should not be confused with Bright Bart of the Simpsons since he is not that good had months to work and rework his evil task.
When it was finished he sent it to, who else but Fox News!  They were all too eager to expose anyone associated with the Obama administration and as usual did not bother to fact check.  Facts only get in the way of a story anyway and when you have people like Limbaugh and Beck and oh so many others who don't even know what a fact is the idea of checking is moot.
Of course the Republicans and especially the extreme right wing-nuts are all over the Obama administration for firing the poor lady.  "How could you do such a thing?"
The crocodile tears, make that crock of shit tears by all the righties including Breitbart was to be expected and probably part of the plan should the truth be found out.
But truth be told the real question is why does anyone ever listen to anything these 'chicken little' cry babies on the right say?  When will the grown-ups of the Democratic Party realize that the minority Party of No is just out to get back in power and they care not who they smear in order to do so.
The Democrats should start using the old Reagan tactic and when confronted with such inane stupidity just laugh, snicker and intone, "There you go again."
And if pressed just bring up all the previous bogus scandals they produced from ACORN on and also ask how many of their members are set to travel the old Allegheny Trail using Rent Boy to carry their bags?
And while they are taking off their shoes and socks so they can count past ten bring back Ms. Sherrod!
Hey guys we've all seen this movie before.
How about giving them two thumbs down!  

'IT' Wins for Now

Now that Bill O'Reilly (Billo to normal humans) has gotten his way by getting some brainless criminal follower of his to kill Dr. Tiller the question remains what will this despicable excuse for a life form do with his on air time?

It is obvious that Billo will not quit nor, it seems will the excrement known as the owners of Fox News fire him so what's next?

As we all wait for 'It' (I will now call him "It" with apologies to the Addams family member of the same name) to pick it's next target I wonder if Rush Lamebrain and Newtered Gingrich are vying for his support.

The GOP is not getting it's hands dirty by calling Justice Sotomayor any names as they have their current non-elected henchmen doing their bidding. These bastions of bull-headedness are using terms such as racist to demean her record. Aside from showing their stupidity and desperateness they are wrong but have no one to tell them so. The party leaders love these attacks so there will be no reprimand coming from people such as John BONER anytime soon.

The fact that they are using the nomination of this qualified judge as a rallying cry to their base for more funding is to be expected. The shame of the matter is that they are getting the funding! What does that say about the base? I guess they are baseless!

But back to 'It.' Who to attack next? Hmmm. So many humans, so little air time.

Crazy like a FOX?

We have a wonderful freedom written into our Constitution and it is known as the Freedom of Speech. Of course as with any freedom there comes an incumbent responsibility and a small caveat. In this case we do not allow radical speech aimed at starting riots or what is commonly known as "Hate Speak."

Unfortunately there is a blight on that part of the law and it is the pervasive television and cable channel known as Fox. Fox news has been spewing its brand of hate for years but around 100 days ago they went into an all out war against truth justice and the American way when they decided to attack President Obama on everything from his name to his hopes for the future.

There are no words that I can use to tell the story of their stupidity and frankly un-American behavior better than to merely let you listen to the hate mongers themselves and in their own words. Click on the 'FOX HATE' link below to watch and listen in awe as the puppets of Fox's Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch try to turn everyone against the President from day one!

The Republican party of NO has no other ideas to help us out of our trouble so they spend their time trying to blame anyone and everyone else.

It is a fascinating video and it will take only 5 and a half minutes of your life. FOX HATE!

Repeat After Me

I am unbelievably handsome and rich beyond compare.
I am unbelievably handsome and rich beyond compare.
I am unbelievably handsome and rich beyond compare.
Sorry, I just finished watching a show about the Bush administration on Fox News and decided to try their strategy in a personal way.
It seems as though all you have to do is say something over and over and it either becomes true or enough people start believing it that truth matters not.
"We are going to hunt down Bin Laden and the terrorists of 9-11."
"We are going to recover the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq."
"We are not going to stop until we get the bad guys and evil doers."
"There is no such thing as Global Warming, it’s just climate change." (Change this!)
"The economy is great." (Somewhere)
"We are creating more and more jobs." (Somewhere)
And my personal favorite - "Mission Accomplished!" (Nowhere)
Have I left anything off?
(The last question was for you guys in the room at AT&T where the Bush government is reading this blog right now along with all my e-mails from the last seven years and transcripts of every phone call I made. Hi guys. I’m a patriot!)
We have lived in this fantasy world ever since Karl Rove and his friends at Diebold decided to fix, I mean help the 2000 Presidential election along. And ever since then we have been constantly bombarded with half truths and down right lies.
We watched in amazement when President Bush glibly handed out the Medal of Freedom to friends of his who, let’s face it would not be able to get a job at Wal-Mart as long as our borders allow illegal aliens into the country. “You’re doing a heck of a job, whatever the Hell your name is!”
And speaking of friends can you believe he has so many?
Well just how many friends does W have?
Let’s see:
Harriet Miers - Supreme Court?
Michael Brown – Head of FEMA? (Horseshit.)
Alberto Gonzales - Attorney General?
Paul Wolfowitz - Iraq war strategist?
Paul Wolfowitz - The head of the World Bank???
Paul Wolfowitz - Career counselor. (Ask his girlfriend.)
Mike McConnell - Director of National Intelligence. (National INTELLIGENCE – Ask this idiot if he knows what Water boarding is.)
Darth Cheney - Head of the NRA? (Well that one fits.)
It appears that friends of George W Bush are people with no particular skill or talent who hung around long enough to get placed in high ranking jobs. Most of these people have some connection to the world of oil. Who is next in line for an important government job Georgie, the Saudi Prince?
Can January 20, 2009 come soon enough? Will we make it? Will we be able to rectify the damages this arguably worst President in the history of the United States has done to this country and the world? Only time will tell.
Of course none of the above really bothers me because I am unbelievably handsome and rich. I’m unbelievably handsome and rich. I’m unbelievably handsome and rich.