Author Archives: xstryker

About xstryker

X Stryker is also the proprietor of the currently-dormant poll analysis blog Election Inspection.

North Carolina House GOP Approves Child Murder Bill

Withholding treatment is murder, in my book.
“Parents would have to give their teenagers permission before they could receive birth control or be treated for sexually transmitted diseases, substance abuse or mental illness, under a bill approved in a House committee on Tuesday.”

Heaven forbid they should get treated for life-threatening conditions without permission! Supporters say the aim of the bill is to restore parental control over teenagers lives. I say the aim is to kill teenagers who have sex or use drugs, and maybe if they’re bullied and harassed for being gay, they can commit suicide rather than get counseling for depression. Remember, these same people want to make sure their teenagers have easy access to (and training with) their gun collections (or be able to buy them online if their hippie parents don’t have any). The life of the child was never their concern.

Unless that child isn’t alive yet, since they also approved a new law regarding abortion. Since parental permission was already required there, the new bill will require parents to have their permission notarized by a Notary Public. Because of course the small government party wants to involve a random stranger in the the most difficult private health decision of your life. Who wouldn’t want to tell their Notary Public about how their daughter was brutally raped a month ago?

But let’s get back to permission for treatment and birth control again. Thanks to increased use of contraceptives (and, related, having Democratic governors from 1993 until this year, when Republican Pat McCrory took office), teen pregnancy is at an all-time low in NC, having declined over 58% since its peak in 1990. And NC also has very low rates, relatively speaking, of alcohol abuse by minors and below average rates of drug abuse by minors (source: 2006-2007 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health). HIV rates are about average. So clearly the problem isn’t a need to do something about teen pregnancy, drug use, or STDs; the problem for Republicans is that teenagers are solving these problems for themselves. Teenagers thinking for themselves has long been a nightmare for conservatives.

And hey, maybe this is about race, too, since African Americans make up 68% of reported AIDS diagnoses in North Carolina source: Kaiser Family Foundation). Yes, their agenda includes discouraging black teenagers from getting tested for HIV. Lovely. That’s a backdoor pathway to genocide in my book.

Take a moment to think about the kind of parent who will say “No” when their child asks to be treated for an STD or drug abuse. The first thing that comes to mind is the parent that was involved in the sexual act in the first place, or supplied the drugs, and fears being discovered. The second thing that comes to mind is the parent that simply despises his or her children and welcomes “God’s punishment” of their children, even if the result is death (and drug abuse can lead to DUI vehicular manslaughter of uninvolved innocents, too). Are these the people whose “control” we should be protecting?

Fox News Dumps Dick Morris

In a victory for reality and a defeat for bullshit, Fox News won’t be renewing its contract with Dick Morris, the world’s worst political pundit. Morris, AKA the King of Wrong Mountain, was last seen predicting a Mitt Romney landslide in November, a prediction not even Rasmussen’s polling hype supported. Fox could have saved themselves some money by listening to me in 2008; it shouldn’t take over a decade for a network to fire someone who makes nothing but wrong predictions. My all time favorite Morris prediction was that Hillary Clinton would beat Obama in the Hawaii caucuses because of “the Asian vote”. Yes, Obama won his home state by a landslide, of course.

Combined with Chris Wallace sticking it to Wayne LaPierre, this news suggests that reality-based discourse is on the rise.

Wednesday Open Thread [12.26.12]

Happy Boxing Day, everybody!

I hope everyone got what they wanted this year, and if they didn’t, may the New Year treat them (and all of us) kindly. How’s your family?

The Six Day Coup at FreedomWorks shows that wingnuts really are crazy, greedy, destructive SOBs, even behind the closed doors of their own organizations. More details: It’s an establishment vs wingnut fight, too, with Dick Armey as the Establishment Guy vs. Matt Kibbe as the Tea Party Renegade.

The guy who shot 4 firemen on Christmas Eve used a Bushmaster rifle, just like Adam Lanza, and left a note indicating his intent to burn down the neighborhood because “killing people” is what he likes “doing best”. He eventually shot himself, and was on parole for killing his grandmother in 1980. So far it’s unknown how he obtained the guns, which is a good indicator of why we need to close the gun show loophole regardless (how would we ever know – gun shows don’t report sales or the identities of purchasers).

Expedia / Hotels.com / Hotwire: The Big, Ugly Rip-Off

How do you feel about a corporation that tries to destroy the small businesses that it is partnered with? Which lies and claims small hotels are completely booked in order to route customers to more expensive ones?

Expedia, which owns Hotels.com, Hotwire, and Venere, is a big, fat rip-off:

Expedia and its many affiliates, including Hotels.com and Venere.com, invite people to come to their sites to book our hotel, the Luna Blue Hotel. Yet when people get to these websites they are told that our hotel is completely occupied for all dates now and in the future. If someone calls on the telephone, they are told that our hotel is going out of business! They are then directed to book another more expensive hotel, which provides Expedia greater commission. It seems that Expedia and its affiliates use small hotels like ours to attract people to their sites so they can get those people to book with bigger resorts. It is the classic “bait and switch” scam.

Read the whole story linked above, it will convince you to never book through Expedia or its affiliates ever again. And this is not an isolated incident: Expedia was fined €427,000 in France for pulling the same sort of scams. “Buyers were given information that certain hotels were full and were directed towards other hotels with whom Expedia and Hotels.com had commercial links.”

And a quick search of the internet reveals countless horror stories from customers, including travellers abandoned overseas without the return tickets they had paid for, refused cancellations, and massive price inflation, all paired with abysmal and unresponsive customer service. Don’t get taken, and don’t support fraudulent business practices.

Boehner: If my taxes go up, so will yours.

House Speaker John Boehner today rejected a proposal from former NRCC head Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) to extend existing tax cuts for middle class Americans, primarily because Boehner (and other wealthy Americans whose incomes have been going up while everyone else’s has been going down) doesn’t get a piece of the tax cut action.

Says the Orange Crybaby: “We’re not going to grow the economy if we raise tax rates on the top two rates.”

Keep in mind, these tax cuts will expire regardless of what Boehner does, so what he actually means is “We’re not going to allow the economy to grow if it means us rich guys have to pay more. We gonna drag all you inferior son of a bitches down with us!”

And so Agent Orange begins his scorched earth campaign, holding several hundred million Americans hostage to his terrorist demands.

Superblogger: Clark Kent leaving the Daily Planet for online journalism

In the latest issue of Superman, Clark Kent quits. And delivers a stinging rebuke of the modern media that nails it as well as anyone could:

But facts have been replaced by opinions. Information has been replaced by entertainment. Reporters have become stenographers.

You have to read the panels posted at the link, because they are simply fantastic. What’s amazing about this is that rather than give up on journalism, he’s becoming a blogger. This is a man who’s faster than a speeding bullet and more powerful than a locomotive; able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. And yet his esteem for truth and justice is so high that he considers his personal brand of mild-mannered reporting to be just as vital as his time spent wearing a cape and punching evil robots and aliens.

Some advice for the Blogger of Steel:

  1. Ban anyone who tries to out you as Kal-El.
  2. Don’t threaten to use your Heat Vision on trolls – you’ll only encourage them.
  3. Don’t respond to requests to syndicate your content. Those people are looking to profit off you without giving you anything in return. However, if you really want the word Kltpzyxm to get more search results on Google, go for it.
  4. Getting Lois and Jimmy to provide additional content is a great idea, but don’t let just anyone join your blog. You don’t want Green Lantern being his usual a-hole self on your blog for the same reason that Green Arrow got rejected from the Justice League. Keep your standards high.

Clark, if you’ve got any dirt on supervillains in Delaware, feel free to send us a tip. Anyone else have advice for the Scribe From Smallville?

Late Night Video 2: We Built This City On Public Dough (Rachel Schain & Todd Chappelle)

Using the parody lyrics to Starship’s “We Built This City (On Rock’N’Roll)” I wrote on last Friday’s thread on the RNC’s ‘We Built This’ theme, Delaware musicians Rachel Schain and Todd Chappelle recorded the following video:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeOoF50YaRw[/youtube]
We probably won’t be hearing this on WGMD anytime soon. 🙂

Frameshopping: Sharpen Up

Frameshopping is the art of crafting a political argument or attack using effective language and brevity. A strong frame can find its way into ads, tweets, and the zingers delivered by the pundits. Conservative Frank Luntz is the master of this art, regularly releasing language guides that have helped the far right control the conversation; even supposedly liberal news outlets often end up phrasing issues in Luntz’s poll-tested pro-conservative language.

Here are a few sharp barbs I thought up; in the comments, offer your own punchy one liners that you’d like to see injected into the mix.

Mitt Romney is lying, greedy slimeball with no integrity whatsoever. (this sounds like an ad hominem, but it’s quite well supported by his behavior in the campaign trail. Having framed this challenge, you can follow up with examples)

Mitt Romney wants to be president so he can create tax loopholes for himself at your expense. (Language: tax cuts sound good, tax loopholes sound bad. And “at your expense” personalizes the reaction. Follow up by contrasting “corporate jets” with “crumbling bridges and schools”)

Obama got the economy back on track, but then the Tea Party derailed it. (Even Republicans get fed up with the Tea Party hysteria. Note that the 2010 GOP takeover of Congress obstructed all of Obama’s job-creation bills.)

Romney’s offering the same thing Bush did: more endless wars, more Enrons, and no accountability. (Language: accountability sounds good, regulations sound bad. Bush is really bad, and no one on Earth likes Enron)

The GOP has lost its mind; they’ve turned into the Sarah Palin Party. (Who better to symbolize the complete nonsense coming from the right these days?)

Your turn – give us your best progressive frames!

Spending, Taxes, Deficit: Lower Now Than Inauguration Day

The facts, as laid out by Think Progress:

20120516-180438.jpg

In January 2009, before President Obama had even taken the oath of office, annual spending was set to total 24.9 percent of gross domestic product. Total spending this year, fiscal year 2012, is expected to top out at 23.4 percent of GDP.
Here’s another interesting fact. Taxes today are lower than they were on inauguration day 2009. Back in January 2009, the CBO projected that total federal tax revenue that year would amount to 16.5 percent of GDP. This year? 15.8 percent.
One last nugget. The deficit this year is going to be lower than what it was on the day President Obama took office. Back then, the CBO said the 2009 deficit would be 8.3 percent of GDP. This year’s deficit is expected to come in at 7.6 percent.

Reality, as we all know, has a liberal bias.

Jefferson-Jackson Dinner Liveblog

John Daniello gave the introduction, noting the Union hall we are in has a roster of out of work members – and that jobs would be the key agenda of the night.

Gov. Jack Markell gave the key note, with an early acknowledgement of the Plumbers and Pipe Fitters Union. He then reviewed the Democratic Party’s electoral successes, and how many office we control now vs. in decades past (noting that John Burris was in attendance). This was followed by a comparison of politics and policies in Delaware vs. other states (and DC) – noting our bond rating, atmosphere of cooperation, teacher hiring, civil unions, etc. He generated significant applause inviting those who want to fight for something (jobs, equality, etc) rather than against someone to come to Delaware. He thanked his family and the attendees for all the work they do.

There are about 10-15 Occupy Delaware protesters outside on the other side of the driveway by the parking lot. They are holding signs and were having a polite conversation with some attendees who came out to note support for shared goals.

Pete Schwartzkopf honored Mitch Crane for the Sussex Democrats, although it was brief (as KWS was in attendance). Matt Denn praised Nancy Cook, the Kent honoree, at length, crediting her in part for Delaware’s bond rating. He also had a zinger about Republican being unable to find someone to run against Markell for “longer than Kim Kardashian’s marriage”. KWS was up next for Wilmington, honoring activist and committeewoman Judith Giofre (and generating only muted applause).

Chris Coons is up, and he’s on fire. Lots of zingers about how poisonous the political atmosphere is in DC (“any day in Delaware is better than a day in DC”) and his freshman classmates in the senate (He said he told his wife “Honey, in six other states they elected Christine O’Donnell”). He praised unions, the protesters (“they should be mad!”), and Delaware Democrats in general. He talked about compromise, but also emphasized that when Republican refuse to give up an inch (noting the Lucy-and-the-football quality to GOP negotiations), we have to fight for our principles; and that the president was “finally” learning that. He noted that he’d better get to the point (because the Eagles game is starting soon), and effusively praised the hard work and selfless attitude of Committeewoman Jayne Fernsler on behalf of New Castle County. Coons is a fantastic speaker and the highlight of the night.

Bob Gilligan delivered a moving eulogy for Rep. Hazel Plant, presenting an award which her daughter Mary accepted. Likewise, John Carney presented a posthumous award to Wayne John Pollari, former chairman of the Brandywine Hundred Democratic Party, who passed away last month. Carney’s speech was a bit muted but very heartfelt. Polari’s daughter Andrea accepted the award, emphasizing the Democratic values she was raised with.

Tom Carper presented the final award to Kristin Barnekov-Short, wife of Rep. Byron Short, for her campaign work on behalf of Coons, Carney, and numerous local Democrats. His introduction was folksy and mentioned the Eagles. After the award, Carper closed with a more somber note about how important the upcoming election is. He said if Republicans controlled all 3 branches of gov’t for the past 3 years, America would no longer have an auto industry, and noted other accomplishments of the current administration.

Photos of the protesters:

20111107-203254.jpg

20111107-203510.jpg
It was pretty dark out there, so you can see the signs about as well as I could.

AP Appoints Liz “Sprinkles” Sidoti As Political Editor

HuffPo notes that AP’s chief political writer Liz Sidoti has been promoted to the position of political editor, putting her fully in charge of AP’s reporting on politics as the 2012 race gathers steam. HuffPo’s article reads much like a Sidoti article – deferential to its subject’s vast sway in Washington. It reads like an AP press release, in fact, because it actually is one – an AP-written article about their own reporter’s promotion.

So I guess it falls to me to point out that Liz Sidoti is a Beltway hack, enamored by the powerful subjects she covered. Seriously, who could forget the sprinkles incident? (You know it’s bad when even Dana Milbank is disgusted)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wB7EDnW-yns[/youtube]

McCain’s moderators, the AP’s Ron Fournier and Liz Sidoti, greeted McCain with a box of Dunkin’ Donuts. “We spend quite a bit of time with you on the back of the Straight Talk Express asking you questions, and what we’ve decided to do today was invite everyone else along on the ride,” Sidoti explained. “We even brought you your favorite treat.”

McCain opened the offering. “Oh, yes, with sprinkles!” he said.

Sidoti passed him a cup. “A little coffee with a little cream and a little sugar,” she said.

I’m not suggesting Sidoti is a conservative. Like any member of the corporate media, she writes whatever narrative is selling, going from fawning over Obama in 2009 to the traditional “Democrats in Disarray in 2010. Here are dueling tracking pages from Media Matters on the left and NewsBusters on the right, although Media Matters appears to have missed tagging one of their own articles regarding Sidoti’s coverage of Obama’s non-involvement in the Blagojevich scandal:

So what do we have? According to Liz Sidoti:

1) “Obama isn’t accused of anything”
2) “prosecutors were making no allegations that Obama was aware of any scheming”
3) “Blagojevich himself, in taped conversations cited by prosecutors, suggested that Obama wouldn’t be helpful to him”
4) There is no evidence, indication, or hint that Obama was aware of scheming, or did help Blagojevich.
5) Nevertheless, “more details on the case could be forthcoming”
6) Therefore, a “scandal” is “threatening to dog” Obama.

This is nothing short of sleazy. With no evidence whatsoever, Sidoti is suggesting ties between Obama and the scandal that simply do not exist. Whatever this is, it isn’t “analysis” and it isn’t “journalism.”

What narratives will she write in 2012? You can bet it will be whatever nonsense the DC cocktail party circuit is crowing about at the moment.

I leave you with one final Sidoti quote, and I’ll let you decide whether this blathering nonsense leans left or right; all I can tell is that it leans stupid.

Obama has been a constant presence in the mass media as he expands the bureaucracy’s reach into the private sector…. In doing so, he has created a quandary. Put aside for a moment the question of whether government is actually intruding into people’s lives more than before. The point is that many people feel like it is — in part because Obama doesn’t stop talking about his goals. If President George W. Bush got slapped around for being inarticulate, is Obama obnoxiously articulate?