September 12, 2013

Five Years after the Bush Economic Meltdown

http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2013/09/12/five-years-after-the-bush-economic-meltdown/

And guess how many Wall Street Crooks have gone to jail? Answer- none. That’s right, the people who crashed the world economy and caused the Great Recession have never been called to account. In fact, most of them are still where they were, getting richer than Croesus.

And one of them became Ohio’s Governor.

Think about it.

September 11, 2013

What a difference 12 years can make.

http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2013/09/11/what-a-difference-12-years-can-make/

In 2001, we had an incompetent and illegitimate “President”, whose arrogance and sense of entitlement was a big reason for the fact that he stupidly ignored the advice of every single expert and allowed 9/11/ to happen. He then lied us into a stupid war with Iraq, crapped all over the Constitution, and bankrupted the nation. Oh, and Bush the Dumber ignored the will of the people.

Today we have a President, twice elected by a clear majority of voters, who has made a good start at cleaning up the messes left behind by the Bushistas. He is moving us back towards Constitutional law, has started to reduce the deficit, brought tens of thousands of American soldiers home, killed the man responsible for 9/11, and generally acted like a, well, legitimate President. All the while receiving little or no appreciation from much of anybody on the Left, Right, or in the Center.

And last night he proved that he DOES listen to vox populi, when he asked Congress to wait to vote on authorization to bomb Syria. The people are against it. He listened. Now he is looking for new options instead of flipping 300 million of us the bird and merrily marching off to war (as the Shrub did).

The best way to honor those who died on this day in 2001 is to show that we have learned the lessons from that horrible day. Obama, like him or not, (and this writer doesn’t much like the man) is doing just that. Credit where it’s due; so thanks, Mister President. It’s nice to have a grownup at 1600 again.

Nothing else at the link.

September 10, 2013

On Syria:Doing Nothing CAN be worse than Doing Something (NOTE:this post will probably p*** you off)

http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2013/09/10/on-syria-doing-nothing-can-be-worse-than-doing-something-warning-this-post-will-probably-p-you-off/
Two things first: First, this is NOT specifically directed at DU or DUers, but at people across the country, of many political persuasions. Second, I'm the author, so the three-paragraph rule doesn't apply.

Normally, I do not take up space with an entire post - but this time, I wanted to get the whole thing out there so as not to be misunderstood. Argued with is fine, of course. Nothing else at the link.

When this writer was but a wee cranky lad, he was sometimes bullied. Fortunately, he was blessed with the ability to fight back. So after a while, the bullies went and found other, easier targets for their bullying. Does that mean that fighting back did no good? After all, the bullying didn’t stop, it just happened somewhere else.

Most of us have seen a domestic incident happen in public. Usually, some good citizen will call the cops or otherwise intervene. Odds are, the domestic abuse continues in private after the intervention. Does that mean that the intervention did no good? After all, the abuse didn’t stop, it just happened somewhere else.

In both of these cases, it’s a fair guess that you’d say “standing up for the victim of abuse is the right thing to do, even if it doesn’t completely fix everything”. This writer agrees. There are issues of morality in play here, not just inhuman calculations of efficacy. So why do so many of us appear willing to throw the Syrian people under the bus by ignoring the abuse that is being heaped upon them?

Yes, Iraq was a cluster-f***. Got it. That was (as your humble correspondent said and has been saying since before the Bushistas lied us into that quagmire) a stupid conflict that we never should have gotten into. But Syria is not Iraq. Nor is the fact that an intervention went South in the past a good reason to never intervene again everevereverevernomatterwhat.

On a short-term, purely practical level, there may be no clearly foreseeable benefit to intervention in Syria, and there certainly are manifold risks to consider. That doesn’t mean we should sit back and do nothing. Just as with a wife being beaten or a child being abused, we intervene even though we do not know the outcome, because we know that right now, a basic human right is being violated. And we owe it to our fellow human beings to stand up for them when their rights are denied.

The fact that they are on the other side of the world instead of the other side of the street does not take away our obligation to care for those who are being oppressed. You know what oppressors love? The same thing that bullies, wife-beaters and child molesters love: they love people who do nothing to stop them from committing crimes against humanity, because it enables them to continue committing those crimes.

Sometimes the media and politicos (and our fellow Americans) can get so wrapped up in realpolitik that we forget about basic human rights and decency. And make no mistake, there are lots of Americans saying “what is happening in Syria is none of our business”, or something of such. So take a moment and think: if you were being beaten, bullied, sexually abused, or gassed, what would you say? Answer: you’d say “HELP ME!” or words to that effect. As you should.

And what would you say to those who could have helped you but chose to turn away, leaving you to the tender mercies of your abuser? Answer: you’d say “F*** YOU, MOTHERF***ER”, or words to that effect. And those whose cowardice or indifference had sealed your fate would deserve those words, that shame, that stinging indictment of their manifest inhumanity.

This does not mean that military intervention is safe, or simple, or even desirable. Nor is military intervention the only route to take – there are some rumblings about a new diplomatic solution, thanks to John Kerry’s flapping yap. But no intervention, doing nothing at all, just because we are understandably weary of war and justly suspicious of our government? That is morally indefensible. (To be clear: thus far, we have done nothing. Nothing at the UN, nothing on the ground.)

People are being abused in Syria: 2 million Syrians are refugees, many living under tarps in the desert, as this post is being written. Hundreds have been gassed to death, and thousands more have been tortured and killed by the abusive Assad regime. If we vote to do nothing to help them, it is no different than turning away from the bullied person or abused child who needs our help right here at home.

September 9, 2013

Gun Nuts have jumped the shark: Iowa is granting carry permits to the legally blind

http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2013/09/09/gun-nuts-have-jumped-the-shark-iowa-is-granting-carry-permits-to-the-legally-blind/

From the article referenced in the blog post: "Private gun ownership — even hunting — by visually impaired Iowans is nothing new. But the practice of visually impaired residents legally carrying firearms in public became widely possible thanks to gun permit changes that took effect in Iowa in 2011.

“It seems a little strange, but the way the law reads, we can’t deny them (a permit) just based on that one thing,” said Sgt. Jana Abens, a spokeswoman for the Polk County sheriff’s office, referring to a visual disability.

Polk County officials say they’ve issued weapons permits to at least three people who can’t legally drive and were unable to read the application forms or had difficulty doing so because of visual impairments."

More at the link, including the usual cranky ranting.

September 6, 2013

Ohio’s 100% “Republican” government gets a “D+” for Spending Transparency (X-Post from GD)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023610175

http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2013/09/06/ohios-100-republican-government-gets-a-d-for-spending-transparency/

Snips:

"But you needn’t take the Cranky word for it: as seen in the Dayton Business Journal, “The Buckeye State received a grade of D-plus from the Georgia PIRG Education Fund, which handed out grades in its “Following the Money 2013: How the States Rank on Providing Online Access to Government Spending Data” report.”

This news, on top of the new law banning the state Auditor from, well, auditing JobsOhio and its use of taxpayer funds (making it impossible to tell who is ripping us off) and a BGA survey ranking Ohio as the tenth most secretive state in the nation, you have to wonder why ANY Buckeye would trust these zeebs."



More at the link, including source material.

September 6, 2013

Ohio’s 100% “Republican” government gets a “D+” for Spending Transparency

http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2013/09/06/ohios-100-republican-government-gets-a-d-for-spending-transparency/

Snips:

"But you needn’t take the Cranky word for it: as seen in the Dayton Business Journal, “The Buckeye State received a grade of D-plus from the Georgia PIRG Education Fund, which handed out grades in its “Following the Money 2013: How the States Rank on Providing Online Access to Government Spending Data” report.”

This news, on top of the new law banning the state Auditor from, well, auditing JobsOhio and its use of taxpayer funds (making it impossible to tell who is ripping us off) and a BGA survey ranking Ohio as the tenth most secretive state in the nation, you have to wonder why ANY Buckeye would trust these zeebs."

More at the link, including source material.

September 5, 2013

Here’s why the Steubenville Grand Jury Recessed Last Month:

http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2013/09/04/heres-why-the-steubenville-grand-jury-recessed-last-month/

Just a short post to keep everyone updated:

"They are waiting for evidence to be analyzed. Turns out that checking throuh all those files on computers, cell phones, and phone company records is complicated work. Who knew? (Yes, that’s sarcasm.)

Of course, it could still turn out to be yet another American town pretending to investigate itself. We’ll know for sure when they actually release the results of their deliberations."

Nothing else at the link except some source material.

September 4, 2013

Federal Judge to Ohio: Yes, I mean it. Mark the man’s husband as such on his death certificate.

http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2013/09/04/federal-judge-to-ohio-yes-i-mean-it-mark-the-mans-husband-as-such-on-his-death-certificate/

A second legally-married couple wins the right to be noted as spouses on death certificates. This is friggin' huge.

Snip:

" A while back, two men got married and won the right to be noted as such should one of them pass away. Now a man named Ives has died and the judge just bitch-slapped Ohio AGAIN, telling them to follow the law and note his legally-married husband as his “spouse” on the death certificate.

Kudos to Judge Black; condolences to Mr. Michener; and brickbats to Ohio’s fundagelical loons who want to persecute loving couples, just because of the positions in which they both can take a pee."

More at the link.

September 4, 2013

Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro found hanged in prison cell

http://touch.latimes.com/#tsection/-1/article/p2p-77265984/

"BY MATT PEARCE
September 4, 2013, 1:10 a.m.
Ariel Castro, the man who has been sentenced to life in prison for holding three Cleveland women captive for roughly a decade before their rescue this year, was found hanged in his cell and is believed to have committed suicide, Ohio officials said.

Castro, 53, was found in his cell at the Correctional Reception Center in Orient Tuesday evening, a prison spokeswoman told the Associated Press. He was pronounced dead at a hospital."

A coward to the end.

September 2, 2013

Diana Nyad is almost done with her record-breaking swim!

http://www.diananyad.com/

Ten miles to go from Cuba to Key West. This woman is a badass. Hope she makes it!