Westboro Baptist Church vs. Comic-Con

It's one thing to protest military funerals and the gays. It's another thing to bring your traveling dickwad show to Comic-Con.

These geeks are prepared.

Check out the full set of images at Comics Alliance.

Boycott Bad Hotels - Creative Activism

Don't Boycott AriZona Iced Tea!

AriZona Iced Tea would like you to know that they're based in New York, thank you very much, so when you're looking to punish the jackholes that are behind the "May I see your papers, please?" immigration legislation, leave AriZona out of it.

You are permitted to enjoy a refreshing AriZona Iced Tea while protesting, which I would find deliciously ironic.

Apparently George Lopez used AriZona Iced Tea in a joke, and for the first time ever, people though something Lopez said was actually funny enough to share with friends. What with Twitter and everything, the humor spread like an Arizona wild fire, much to the dismay of AriZona Iced Tea, who felt the need to issue a press release to tell the world they're from Long Island, dammit.

There are other companies based in Arizona that are fair game, though. U-Haul, Cold Stone Creamery, PF Chang's - a partial list is located here.

As far as AriZona Iced Tea, try the ginseng tea. It'll give you something from which to hang your protest banner.

Image via Wikimedia Commons

Religious Reminder for Immigration Zealots

Via Andrew Sullivan, a helpful reminder from all those Christians with their knickers in a bunch about illegal aliens and immigration:

Leviticus 19:33-34 (NIV)

When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt.

Bible burn!

It's White Fright, Stupid

In his weekly New York Times column, Frank Rich peels the lily-white onion and discovers what we've known all along: The apoplectic response to the passage of health care reform has little to do with the proximate cause. And it didn't start with this bill.

Says Rich:

But there was nothing like this. To find a prototype for the overheated reaction to the health care bill, you have to look a year before Medicare, to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Both laws passed by similar majorities in Congress; the Civil Rights Act received even more votes in the Senate (73) than Medicare (70). But it was only the civil rights bill that made some Americans run off the rails. That’s because it was the one that signaled an inexorable and immutable change in the very identity of America, not just its governance. 

Hmm. Civil rights. Perceived loss by certain groups as the playing field was slowly being leveled.

That a tsunami of anger is gathering today is illogical, given that what the right calls “Obamacare” is less provocative than either the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or Medicare, an epic entitlement that actually did precipitate a government takeover of a sizable chunk of American health care. But the explanation is plain: the health care bill is not the main source of this anger and never has been. It’s merely a handy excuse. The real source of the over-the-top rage of 2010 is the same kind of national existential reordering that roiled America in 1964.

So what is the genesis of this angst, the volatile fuel that's causing tea bagger rockets to whiz past monuments in the night, Sarah Palin's Facebook page during the day, and empowering angry simpletons to hurl bricks through glass windows at targeted members of Congress, obviously taking their revolutionary training by watch Palestinians throw rocks at Israeli tanks seconds before being cut down in a fusillade of bullets. 

If Obama’s first legislative priority had been immigration or financial reform or climate change, we would have seen the same trajectory. The conjunction of a black president and a female speaker of the House — topped off by a wise Latina on the Supreme Court and a powerful gay Congressional committee chairman — would sow fears of disenfranchisement among a dwindling and threatened minority in the country no matter what policies were in play. It’s not happenstance that Frank, Lewis and Cleaver — none of them major Democratic players in the health care push — received a major share of last weekend’s abuse. When you hear demonstrators chant the slogan “Take our country back!,” these are the people they want to take the country back from.

You spine-chilling conglomeration of gays and chicks, blacks and browns, all coming together to push through significant changes in a political landscape dominated by the stall and the sound-byte. Have you no idea what you've started?

Momentum. And it's frightening the white guys with lace on their panties and guns in their trucks who see this as rapidly escalating into the Ardennes forest in the winter of '44 as they hunker down while shells rain down upon them. Like Patton, who shall come to reinforce the surrounded tea party lads before food and water run out, ammunition runs low, and the are forced to fight to the last man?

I don't see any groups stepping up, do you?

The Return of McCarthyism - Video Proof

Via AMERICAblog News, some video that highlights what some are calling "The Return of McCarthyism"



Can we at least agree that these folks are part of the problem and will never be part of the solution?

Heartless Hyatt Hotels

My across-the-street neighbor a few years back worked in sales and marketing for Hyatt hotels. He moved around pretty often, which he claimed was so indicative of the brand that the letters HYATT stood for Have Your Ass There Tomorrow.

So I was appalled, but not surprised, when I read this report that Hyatt had fired about 100 of their housekeeping staff at three locations in Boston and replaced them with out-of-state workers.

What's so appalling about that, you ask?

The housekeeping staff had been told that they were only training their replacements to fill in for vacations.

Unacceptable. Outsource the work if that's the path you choose to keep up your margins, but lying to your employees inspires the trust and confidence in management usually reserved for companies like Enron and Walmart.

I'm supposed to stay in a Hyatt in Atlanta in October. I'm looking for alternate accommodations, and I hope you consider this incident when making your travel plans, too.

Tea Bag Crowd Afraid of Education

With elements on the right going spastic over each and every idea that the Obama administration puts forth, the tea baggers are earning their protesting chops, regardless of how silly and non-productive their events end up being.

With that sort of experience, one might begin to believe that the TBs would get better over time with the whole protest infrastructure. They should be able to do it in their sleep.

Perhaps they are - doing it in their sleep.

That would explain the sheer number of misspelled signs noted at their rallies. Cardboard boxes don't have spell-checkers, but I know for a fact that Walmart sells dictionaries. And the baggers could always sit down and use the Google.

No wonder they were so afraid of Obama's education speech.

Link via Daily Kos

5 Laws of the Crazy Tree

Jesse Walker takes on the perception, recently articulated by Rick Perlstein in the Washington Post, that "the crazy tree blooms in every moment of liberal ascendancy, and...elites exploit the crazy for their own narrow interests."

Walker makes a couple of salient points, notably that Perlstein confuses the actual kooks with protesters of the tea-bagging ilk, and that the roots of the crazy tree grow only on the right. Neither is true, and Walker makes a convincing case in rebuttal.

So what does Walker believe are the core components of the crazy tree?

1. It's always blooming somewhere.
2. Lots of people try to exploit it.
3. It has a life of its own.
4. It isn't completely crazy.
5. It blooms in the center, too.

I agree with Walker - I'd much rather pick my own way through the information as opposed to having centrists maintain their ability to dismiss positions other than their own as coming from fanatical extremists and thereby insinuating that there's no value to considering alternate views.

Iamge by a natural thing via flickr

Boycotting Whole Foods is Pretty Stupid

Y'know, it's getting a little tiresome, listening to left-wing activists who advocate leaping off of tall buildings as a form of protest every time they feel slighted by someone or something.

Did the CEO of Whole Foods say some misguided, silly things? Of course. Who among us hasn't?

But Radley Balko is spot-on:

Let me see if I have the logic correct here: Whole Foods is consistently ranked among the most employee-friendly places to work in the service industry. In fact, Whole Foods treats employees a hell of a lot better than most liberal activist groups do. The company has strict environmental and humane animal treatment standards about how its food is grown and raised. The company buys local. The store near me is hosting a local tasting event for its regional vendors. Last I saw, the company’s lowest wage earners make $13.15 per hour. They also get to vote on what type of health insurance they want. And they all get health insurance. The company is also constantly raising money for various philanthropic causes. When I was there today, they were taking donations for a school lunch program. In short, Whole Foods is everything leftists talk about when they talk about "corporate responsibility."

Image by That Other Paper via flickr

I Remember An America Where Black Men Didn't Grow Up To Be President

Margaret and Helen hit the nail on the head once again:

Margaret is it just me or did combing your hair become optional when going out in public? I’ve been watching news clips of these town hall free-for-alls and we have definitely become a nation of tired, poor, and huddled masses clearly tempest-tossed, but without access to a good beauty salon. Universal Hygiene – now that is something I could get behind. And all of them are asking for their America back. I wonder which America that would be?

And:

Now shame on me for making a joke about a serious subject, but if these morons are going to show up and scream at their elected officials, they need to educate themselves about the subject at hand. No one is planning on killing you or your grandmother with rationed healthcare or death squads. By the looks of the American citizenry turning out for these town hall meetings, we’re doing a fine job of killing ourselves with fast food, cigarettes and an overindulgence of ignorance.

Crushing Liberty in a Rush of Anger

It is not the fact of liberty but the way in which liberty is exercised that ultimately determines whether liberty itself survives - Dorothy Thompson

Right Wing Protesters Need to Get a Grip

This is beginning to remind me a little of the many videos posted in the final weeks of the John McCain - Sarah Palin campaign, when the wingnuts were railing about Obama the Terrorist, Bill Ayers, socialism, and impending doom while carrying signs that portrayed Obama as a monkey, or worse.

In their minds, it's no longer about differing views or civil discourse. It's about shutting down conversations and spewing vitriol while using hate as a cloak to hide their utter lack of effective ideas.

I guess this is what happens when you pin the vermin in the corner.

Conservatives Like Democracy in Iran but not America

Am I the only one who remembers that back when Bush-Cheney were campaigning during the 2004 election cycle, not only were protesters kept away from the candidates by police, but several hundred were arrested for exercising the very same freedoms being played out in Iran?

Someone needs to explain to me how conservatives reconcile the fact that they want Iranian citizens to have freedoms that conservative candidates specifically disallowed in this country.

Freedom to protest your government without retribution is either a right of democracy, or it isn't.

Are Americans Terrorists by Default?

One of the most often heard cliches emanating from the flag-waving crowd is that whole "freedom of speech" thing that our forefathers insisted be included in the American Constitution. It was so important that it ended up as the First Amendment.

Ring a bell? Thought so.

Peaceful protests by the common citizenry, unfettered by government interference and persecution, have become the backbone of the sort of democracy we've been trying to force-feed to other countries, often accompanied by high explosives.

So why does training material provided by the Department of Defense point out that public protest can be considered "low-level terrorism?"

In a complaint filed by the ACLU and detailed in an article on the Contra Costa Times web site, that would be the United States Government - Department of Defense. And the ACLU would like some answers and changes, such as revising this Q&A:

Among the multiple-choice questions included in its Level 1 Antiterrorism Awareness training course — an annual training requirement for all DOD personnel that is fulfilled through Web-based instruction — the department asks the following: "Which of the following is an example of low-level terrorist activity?" To answer correctly, the examinee must select "protests." The ACLU wants that changed immediately, and it wants corrective information sent to all Department of Defense employees who received the training.

Remember - if it's not an American flag, it's probably a bomb.

Defense Department sees protests as terrorism , via Contra Costa Times

Where Would Tea Baggers Cut The Budget?

One of the funniest things about watching the antics of the FOX News driven and rich-folk-funded Tea Bagger revolt develop has been trying to figure out what the hell their message is, since it seems to change from hour to hour.

I get that they are fed up with government bailouts and stimulus packages. I don't think any of us is thrilled about pouring billions into banks that give us the finger while we're doing it, but it seems like a better option than financial Armageddon.

Similarly, there's a lot of money being spent to build roads and bridges, but nearly every economist agrees that when the economy is in terrible shape, only the government can pump the kind of money into the system to get things back on track, and at least we're spending on things that will be around in twenty years.

What bothers me about the tea bagging crowd is that they are very vocal about what they are against, but nearly silent on what they are for. Ok, you tea-bagging bastards...you don't like government spending? Tell me what you would cut.

Here's a graphic provided by Kevin Drum in his MotherJones blog that details where most of the federal dollars are spent. Are you going to cut Social Security? Defense spending? Medicare and Medicaid?

No? That only leaves 11% of the total budget left to trim. Are you really going to make a big difference by paring 15% off of the paltry 2% currently devoted to education? Not a big cost savings there. I'm sure that the federal retirees and veterans would like to hear how they can make do with less.

So put the friggin' tea bags down and get serious. Tell us where you would make budget cuts, or sit down and shut up. Unless you truly have no idea of the real reasons why you are protesting.