You're Why We Can't Have Nice Things

The Tea Party is claiming VICTORY in Georgia having defeated a measure to raise the sales tax in Atlanta by a penny in order to address the city’s massive infrastructure issues.  The measure promptly lost by 26 points because DON’T TREAD ON ME or something despite having the support of GOP Gov. Nathan Deal and Dem Mayor Kasim Reed.

The bottom line: Most voters didn’t believe government would wisely spend the new tax revenues – estimated at about $8.5 billion over a decade – and seriously address traffic, which everyone here agrees is horrendous. 

A humbled Mayor Reed spoke to supporters late Tuesday night saying he would “stick out my chin and take the loss,” but urged the region to go back to the drawing board to find another plan that voters might accept. Both he and the governor have begun talks about what to do now about alleviating traffic problems in the nation’s ninth-largest metropolitan area, with a population of about 5.3 million.

“What we need now is a bigger table, a bigger table for our friends who disagreed with us,” Mr. Reed said.

The proposal lost in all 10 of the metro area’s counties.

“People as exemplified by this vote have really lost faith in their government to mean what it says,” said Phil Kent, a local conservative commentator who pushed for a no vote.

The mass transit part of the plan was “totally rejected” by voters, most of whom don’t use public transportation, and many saw the road projects as government aid programs “for construction companies and real estate moguls,” he said.

And thus, the American Way triumphs:  Georgians would rather sit in traffic for an extra couple of hours a week or so rather than cough up an extra nickel on that trenta iced coffee because LIBERTY.  Infrastructure comes from the asphalt fairy anyway, and besides, the argument was that rich people will just pocket the money and not fix the roads, so why try to fix the roads?  Our roads are broken, government can never be the solution, so the roads remain broken.  Perhaps the city can contract roving bands of nomadic road crews.

Whoever came up with “Americans are mature enough to vote on taxation issues” really needs to get a scoop of hot road tar down their drawers.

Thinking about this, what are the other options?  Traffic is awful and it’s costing businesses and people millions, if not billions.  You don’t want to pay to fix the problem.  There are no other real solutions, unless you want to go with “Let’s just get rid of all the undesirables in the Atlanta Metro area” or something stup…

...Oh.  Yes.  Silly me.  Tea Party.

Loughner Gets Life

As expected, Arizona assassin Jared Lee Loughner has pleaded guilty to murdering six and injuring 13 more, resulting in a plea bargain sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole.

Jared Lee Loughner, the alleged gunman in last year's mass shooting outside an Arizona supermarket in Tucson that killed six people and wounded then-U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, pleaded guilty Tuesday to 19 charges in exchange for the government not seeking the death penalty.

Under the plea deal, Loughner will be sentenced to life in prison with no eligibility for parole, federal prosecutors said. His sentencing is scheduled for November 15, prosecutors said.

In court, Loughner also waived his right to pursue an insanity defense.

"My name is Jared Lee Loughner," the defendant told the court when he held up his right hand under oath.

Loughner calmly told the court he understood his guilty plea. "Yes, that is correct," he said.

"I'm 23 years old," he told the court. "I attended college for five years at a community college."

You figure that means he gets 60 or 70 years in the clink to be haunted by his horrific crimes.  I'm okay with this, personally.   Death's too good for this asshole, even if I did believe in the death penalty (which I do not.)

I just can't stop thinking about Christina Taylor-Green, the 9 year old born on 9/11/01 who wanted to meet her representative in Congress because she wanted to serve her country in politics and paid for her life by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Loughner should have gone to prison for a lifetime just on her death.

We'll see.

Define Roast

 You know it's bad when Comedy Central has to censor an event.  This time it's Jeff Ross, who pushed the line too far, more than once.

Ross -- who came to the event dressed like Joe Paterno, accompanied by two young topless boys -- has been under fire for cracking the following zinger, directed at Seth Green:

“Seth, congratulations. This is actually a great night for you ... you haven’t gotten this much attention since you shot all those people in Aurora. ... I’m kidding. You are not like James Holmes. At least he did something in a movie theater that people remember!”

After the taping, one of the producers announced that the joke would be cut from the August 12 broadcast. 

His response?  That's what a roast is for.

Well, not really.  See, I grew up in the days of the real roasts.  When Dean Martin and company would bring out their best jokes, set each other up to have a rollicking good time, and yes... poke fun at the guest of honor.  But there was never a declaration that roasts exist so that comedians can go as low as they can think of.  First of all, dressing like Paterno in the company of half-naked boys is as ignorant as it is tasteless.  Making jokes about the slaughter of innocent people is never in taste.  It's not a matter of "too soon" as it is "too much" and he wasn't that funny to begin with.

There are comedians and acts that you go into knowing boundaries would be pushed.  I get that.  But you should also get that if you push boundaries, this is the fallout when you find the line.  I tell the kids the same thing, if you insist on pushing to find where the line is... when you find out it will be because you get smacked down.

I know readers are going to have differing opinions, and I welcome them.  This is mine, and it didn't come without some soul searching and finding internal vs. external lines of decency.

When Reality Couples Need Help, What Should They Do?

According to some, they should go on a reality show to counsel them.  Because nothing helps love heal like a  camera.  Nothing encourages honesty and self-reflection like having to answer to the public for what comes out.

Former "Real Housewives of New York" stars Alex McCord and Simon Van Kempen claim they're on the verge of a nasty split -- so they've decided to hash out their issues on a VH1 reality show for troubled couples.

Sources close to the production of "Couples Therapy" tell TMZ, Alex and Simon will be starring on the upcoming season of the show -- alongside 17-year-old Courtney Stodden and her 52-year-old husband Doug Hutchison.

In addition to those two couples -- we're told R&B singer JoJo (From K-Ci & JoJo) will be appearing with his wife, as well as TheDirty.com blogger Nik Richie and his "Bachelor" star wife Shayne Lamas.

Rapper Too $hort will also be on the show with his 15-year on-again-off-again girlfriend Monica Payne.

I'm not gonna lie, it may be interesting.  The sad part is that I doubt it's helpful to the people going.  For those who value marriage more than fame or the paycheck, this could be an epic fail.

The Road Less Traveled

Google's self-driving car project fleet has now logged 300,000 miles safely as the company looks ahead to more challenging traffic conditions:  construction zones, inclement weather, and San Francisco commuters.

“We’ve done some testing in Nevada, Florida, Washington D.C., and other areas, but most of our testing has been in California because that’s where our team is based,” a Google spokesperson told TPM in a statement.

Further, Google said on Tuesday that a new type of car will join its fleet of about a dozen modified Toyota Priuses: The Lexus RX450h.

Not only that, but Google said it will be widening the tests to new terrain and driving situations, including “snow-covered roadways” and “temporary construction signals.” Google will also begin allowing the cars to have just one human monitor riding along, instead of the previous two-people per-car.

Finally, the company said it will allow some employees to begin taking the cars to work.

Specifically, the work commutes using the Google self-driving cars “will take place in the San Francisco Bay Area at this pont,” a company spokesperson told TPM.

Google’s spokesperson told TPM that none of Google’s self-driving cars had ever been involved in an incident with law-enforcement. 

That will eventually happen, but that's why you test these things.  Still, given another 5 years or so I see this technology being commercially available, and given another 10 or 15 it may be commonplace.  Can't wait to see that happen.

Hurry up, Google.  My commute sucks.

The Big GOP Primary Thread: For Pete's Sake

Primary season moved to Michigan this week, where as expected GOP nutjob Pete Hoekstra easily won his Senate primary for the right to face off against Democratic incumbent Debbie Stabenow.

Hoekstra led businessman Clark Durant (R) by 54 percent to 33 percent, with 36 percent of precincts reporting. The Associated Press has called the race.

The former congressman started out the race as the clear front-runner, well known statewide after an unsuccessful run for governor two years ago and with a strong political base in his old congressional district in Western Michigan, the most conservative part of the state.

Durant proved a strong fundraiser and rallied some Tea Partiers, who were unhappy with Hoekstra’s support of the Wall Street bailout and some other issues, to his side, but he was never able to overcome Hoekstra’s initial support.

Pete's going to have quite a tough time.  Despite running ads against Stabenow back in February (that's how sure he was of his win six months before the primary) Stabenow has the lead and Hoekstra has some problems:

A few of Hoekstra’s missteps could haunt him in the general election. A campaign ad he ran featuring an Asian-American actress speaking in broken English was widely criticized as racist, and he was caught on tape questioning whether President Obama was born in the U.S.

Stabenow starts off as the heavy favorite in the general election. She holds a double-digit lead in recent polls and has a big cash advantage, with more than $4.5 million in the bank to $1 million for Hoekstra as of the last campaign report filing in mid-July.

I expect Stabenow to win easily, mainly because Hoekstra is laughably bad.  We'll see.

StupidiNews!

• Hurricane Ernesto has made landfall on the Mexican Yucatan, near the border with Belize, but it's expected to re-enter the Gulf of Mexico later today.
• A mentally disabled man has been executed in Texas for killing a police informant in 1992, despite testing showing the man had an IQ of just 61.
• New Zealand's Mount Tongariro volcano has erupted for the first time in over a 100 years as residents sought shelter from ash and debris.
• Famed British football club Manchester United is expecting to raise nearly $4 billion in its stock IPO this week, making it the most valuable sports franchise on Earth.
• Scientists are using wearable devices that monitor your heart rate and other biometric data in order to act as an "unhackable" key to prevent data theft.

Last Call

"Papa" John Schnatter, of Papa John's Pizza fame, says Obamacare is going to jack up the price of his pies, so get ready to fork over more green, America.

On a conference call last week, CEO and founder John Schnatter (a Mitt Romney supporter and fundraiser) said the health care law's changes — set to go into effect in 2014 — will result in higher costs for the company — which they vowed to pass onto consumers.

"Our best estimate is that the Obamacare will cost 11 to 14 cents per pizza, or 15 to 20 cents per order from a corporate basis," Schnatter said.

"We're not supportive of Obamacare, like most businesses in our industry. But our business model and unit economics are about as ideal as you can get for a food company to absorb Obamacare," he said.

"If Obamacare is in fact not repealed, we will find tactics to shallow out any Obamacare costs and core strategies to pass that cost onto consumers in order to protect our shareholders best interests," Schnatter vowed.

Meanwhile, the cost of that 20 cents is Papa John's employees get affordable health care.  Gosh, how horrible that must be for them.  Most employers would be thrilled with that and say "We're looking forward to helping our Papa John's employees stay healthy through affordable health care, including preventative care and checkups, so that people will consider our pizza chain a great place to work."

Nope.  It's "It's your fault we have to give our slutty pizza drivers birth control pills, so we're going to make you customers pay for it.  You should probably foment REVOLUTION as a result."

Sigh.

Remember, employees are the enemy.

Today In Village Idiocy

Has National Review's Ramesh Ponnuru ever had a decent idea in his entire life?

Cable-television shows about politics are often blamed for polarizing Americans. To this way of thinking, they are responsible for much of the incivility of today’s political culture and have made it harder for us to work together to solve our problems.

This concern seems overblown to me. While the shows don’t help, their effect is probably small. The main sources of polarization lie elsewhere (especially, I would argue, in the way that courts have put social issues at the center of national politics). 

Hey nimrod, which side keeps constantly suing to try to have the courts overturn established precedent on Roe v. Wade or to curtail the Civil Rights Act?   Asshole.

The real problem with the cable-TV shows is that so much of the discussion on them is dumb, one-sided or both. (I trust that readers don’t need me to supply examples.) Their main function seems to be to provide Team Red and Team Blue with their daily talking points and with fresh causes for outrage at the other side. A lot of people seem to like this kind of thing, and it has its place in a robust democracy.

There is a way to elevate the political debate a little bit, though, and it’s simple: One of the cable networks should bring back “Crossfire.” Yes, that’s the CNN show that Jon Stewart attacked in 2004 for “hurting America,” shortly before its 23-year run ended. 

Yes, because the real problem in America is not enough cable TV news shows where one side lies, the other side points out the obvious lie, and then the conclusion is "Well, both sides are probably guilty here."

What we need is far fewer cable TV shows and referee calls from the Village, where news is presented as factual, not to fit whatever ideology that happens to be in vogue.  The Village is incapable of it.  We need less of you pundit jagoffs, not more.

Another Milepost On The Road To Oblivion

Bereft of actual policy points he can make that don't involve releasing his tax returns and not wanting to blow the one shot he has at changing the subject with a veep pick right now Romneybot flips through Newt's Contract With America playbook and comes up with this gem of an ad campaign. First, the President's policy fixes:

Changes to welfare pushed by President Barack Obama's administration are providing his Republican challenger Mitt Romney with material for a new round of attacks, including a television ad released Tuesday. The changes, which would allow states greater flexibility in administering their welfare-to-work programs, came in a directive issued by the Department of Health and Human Services in mid-July. At the time, some Republicans claimed the new rules amounted to a "gutting" of work requirements for welfare recipients, which were a central element of the bipartisan welfare reform law signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996.

Let's pause for a minute here.

The changes would relax paperwork and reporting requirements for these programs, allowing the states to put more money towards actually helping people move from assistance programs to gainful employment, giving more power to the states to run the programs as they see fit to adapt for employment conditions in their general areas.  This seems like EXACTLY THE KIND OF THINGS REPUBLICANS SCREAM ABOUT WANTING TO DO.  But because Republicans can't possibly resist being racist chunderdouches, they derive this nonsense from the new requirements:

In Tuesday's ad from the Romney campaign, an announcer points to Clinton's achievement, and claims Obama's directive would "gut welfare reform by dropping work requirements." "Under Obama's plan, you wouldn't have to work and wouldn't have to train for a job. They just send you your welfare check," the announcer continues. "And welfare to work goes back to being plain old welfare."

Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul said the welfare ad was one piece in a larger push to highlight the Obama administration's changes to ways states administer welfare. "Middle-class Americans are working harder and harder to make ends meet," Saul wrote. "Under President Obama, they have fewer jobs and less take-home pay. And now, President Obama wants to take their hard-earned tax dollars and give it to welfare recipients without work requirements." Romney, she wrote, "would restore the work requirement in the welfare law so that recipients know the dignity of work instead of the dependency of a handout."

BLACK PRESIDENT CRISPUS GETBUCKS IS GIVING YOUR HARD-EARNED WHITE WELFARE TAX DOLLARS TO SHANIQUA AND TYREEK AND BEBE'S KIDS.  Clearly impeachment is a requirement, so you might want to RSVP now before the Unemployed Nubian Shock Troops arrive and drink up all the Hennessy you got on your shelf and make more Halfrican-non Americans with your chunky blonde daughters.  Soon they'll be EVERYWHERE and the only growth industries will be nail salons, check cashing joints and hair weave factories and the national language will officially be changed to Ebonics.

At this point, the ni-CLANG! Clock is at like 11:58 and 55 seconds, and it's first week of August still and we've got Romney busting out the Welfare Queens And Strapping Young Bucks card.  Where's he going to go next, showing White Man's Burden as a documentary on a possible second Obama term?

Let's keep in mind that the directive actually says that if the states submit a plan that lowers the work requirements, the plan will be rejected by the feds.  And a number of Republicans in red states have been eager to get behind waivers for these bureaucratic and reporting requirements as a money-saving tool for cash-strapped state governments because hey, let's not forget that the majority of welfare benefits go to white people, because white people are a majority of the population in most red states still. 

President Obama is going "You know what, these reporting requirements really are burdensome at this point in our path forward on economic progress, and I'm going to make things easier on people." But no, once again a moderate Republican move is fine until Obama does it, then it becomes "President Pootie Tang is giving free shit to lazy negroes while an out of work, frustrated broke white guy is staring in the mirror going "He hate me."  That's all that matters as the Romney campaign hits a dismal new low and we're still 90 days or so out from the election.

The knowledge that Romney will have to go even more negative and more awful with three months left makes me wonder just how far we're going to get.  Romney in blackface?  Romney with dancing Mammies?  Romney smashing watermelons in front of a Church's Fried Chicken?  Romney re-enacting episodes of The Wire?  Where's he going to go next?

Because wherever it is, it's going to be worse than this disgusting, awful piece of racist garbage.  You can count on it.

Bad Bosses Suck... Now With Scientific Proof

Psychologist Robert Hogan, an expert on personality assessments, has seen them all.

"Every employed adult reports some significant time working for an 'intolerable boss' and those (employees) that try to defend themselves are gone," Hogan, ofAmelia Island, Fla., told a session this weekend at theAmerican Psychological Association annual conference. The meeting, which drew more than 10,900 psychology professionals, wrapped up Sunday.

"Seventy-five percent of working adults say the worst aspect of their job — the most stressful aspect of their job — is their immediate boss," Hogan says. "Bad managers create enormous health costs and are a major source of misery for many people."

Companies that take care of employees get better results.  There is a line, but more care given to employees yields benefits for everyone.

As for our workplace satisfaction bearing on our health, that's a no-brainer.  Work is a major component of our lives, and our satisfaction and happiness are important.  I can vouch for it on a personal level.  I hadn't been happy with my career for a couple of years and my stress was incredible.  Now that I have found a great job that works for me on all levels, my blood pressure, diabetes and overall well-being have improved dramatically.

Do what you love.  You'll be happier and healthier if you do.

Oops! Airline Fluke Bills Passengers Repeatedly

DALLAS — Southwest Airlines says it has begun filing refunds to customers who were accidentally billed multiple times for a single flight, after a half-price online ticket promotion backfired.

The special sale designed to celebrate Southwest's reaching the three million mark in Facebook fans was supposed to give customers who booked flights on Friday a 50-percent discount on certain fares.

Instead, hundreds of frustrated would-be fliers wound up posting stories on social media about how their credit and debit cards were being repeatedly charged, in some cases 20 or more times.

Aggravating, but it happens.  They're making good on it, so while I can understand the frustration it will come out okay in the end.  Still, I can't imagine what I'd do if I checked my bank balance and saw I'd been billed twenty times for a flight.  I'm pretty sure I would faint after a long stream of poetic naughty phrases.

School Of Hard Knocked Up

Louisiana GOP Gov. Bobby Jindal's disastrous experiment with turning the state's education system into a for-profit charter school nightmare funneling taxpayer education dollars to religious schools while destroying the state's remaining public schools  and destroying public libraries continues unabated, and the latest revelation in this monstrous mess is the fact that one of these public charter schools taking taxpayer money is in clear violation of the Constitution and Title IX with a policy that expels female students for being pregnant.

If an administrator or teacher suspects a student is pregnant, a parent conference will be held. The school reserves the right to require any female student to take a pregnancy test to confirm whether or not the suspected student is in fact pregnant. The school further reserves the right to refer the suspected student to a physician of its choice. If the test indicates that the student is pregnant, the student will not be permitted to attend classes on the campus of Delhi Charter school.
...
Any student who is suspected of being pregnant and who refuse to submit to a pregnancy test shall be treated as a pregnant student and will be offered home study opportunities. If home study opportunities are not acceptable, the student will be counseled to seek other educational opportunities.

In other words, get with child, get thee hence.  No section of the rulebook about Baby Daddies however, apparently that behavior is too difficult to stop enforcing, even though teenagers magically get pregnant through osmosis or something.

Needless to say, now that these assholes are taking state taxpayer money, they are subject to federal laws, including the Constitution and Title IX, which expressly forbids expelling a student for being pregnant.

The ACLU is giving these guys time to completely rewrite their rulebook before they drop the hammer on them in what could be the shortest federal case in national history.  Me, I'd still pay to be in the courtroom for the whole 7 minutes it took to decide this case.

PS, Jindal's plan is coming to a country near you should Romney and the GOP gain control of Washington and then use tax dollars for religious charter schools to teach complete nonsense.

Fact Check Yourself before You Fact Wreck Yourself, Again

Scott Lemieux notes the PolitiFact people are throwing boatloads of red flags on Harry Reid, the Most Awful Senator ever.

Give the most useless website in the known universe this: they’re consistent. Once again, they have awarded a “pants on fire” award, in this case to Harry Reid, despite providing no evidence whatsoever that Reid lied. Here’s the problem:

Many readers asked us to put Reid’s claim to the Truth-O-Meter. We conclude that Reid, despite repeating the claim on at least two occasions, has not produced any solid evidence it is true.

This is not, in fact, constitute a “lie.” If it is, than Romney has told “pants on fire” lies about what he’s paid in taxes as well. And PolitiFact is double-pants-on-fire-with-an-additional-Pinocchio lying, since they haven’t provided the slightest evidence that Reid wasn’t told by someone that Romney hasn’t paid taxes. As always, PolitiFact simply doesn’t understand what facts and lies are, which is kind of a problem when you purport to be a fact-checker. 

Doesn't matter.  POLITIFACT CONFIRMS SEN. REID IS "DIRTY LIAR" is all that matters in our Village media.  Mission Accomplished for the Fact Checkers, because after all there's no way that anyone can prove Harry Reid isn't lying.  No documents exist that we could check to see if Harry Reid's statement about Mitt Romney's tax returns is true or not, so clearly this is a "both sides do it" moment and Harry Reid should probably resign.

Or he should accuse the Obama administration of being infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood  See, it's possible that's true, so we can't give that a Pants on Fire.  It's not like there's a clear set of documents that could swing this argument decisively.

But we'll never know the truth, so it's probably best that the Democrat lose all credibility and be driven from office.  What can you do?

StupidiNews!

• Tropical Storm Ernesto may reach hurricane strength as it angles for the Yucatan and the Gulf of Mexico after dumping a foot of rain on Jamaica.
• Sikh community leaders say Sunday's deadly terror attack on a gurdwara in Wisconsin is the result of "collateral damage from 9/11".
• President Obama has signed a law giving health care to thousands of ill Marines and their families exposed to contaminated water at Camp Lejuene, North Carolina over a 30 year period.
• Hong Kong trading house Standard Chartered faces suspension of its US division after evidence of a quarter of a trillion in financial transactions with Iran have surfaced, violating US sanctions.
• It's the return of the video arcade as Generation X is sharing a hip, retro pastime with "barcades" and a new generation of gamers coming of age.