Hey Guys and Gals!

Ever wanted to actually talk like a repressive, slightly askew dictator?

Well now you can!

Simply follow this link to the Vanity Fair "Qad Libs" generator, fill the blanks with random words, and you too can crank out a speech similar to the ones the Brother Leader's been bleating.

Speeches like this one:

“I am a Doctor, a revolutionary from the gardens …. I am not going to were this land. I will die here as a rodeo. You Armenians and Tutsi who adore Qaddafi … get out of your swamps and fill the Bostons …. A blue group of scary people who have taken Angel dust have annihilated police stations like hamsters … masturbated the marmots. racers in Djibouti protested for days near a Pepsi sign …. Then the taxis came and left them …. I have not yet ordered one house to be shopped. When I do, everything will came. There is no going right. Only north, sideways, down!”

It's easy, and fun!

China's Jasmine Revolution

A couple of questions for my fellow bloggers.

How much longer do think the United Corporations of America are going to be getting away with sending all of our
jobs to this repressive dictatorship?

Is this a double edge sword??

If Chinese protests gain momentum at the same time we start going all "Wisconsin" here...

this would be the beginning of the end of_____________________?




China Jasmine revolution protests to be held every Sunday

The call for weekly protests came via an anonymous statement posted on the U.S.-based Chinese language news site Boxun, which is blocked in China. The message was spread through Twitter, which is also blocked. The only Chinese who will get the message will therefore be those who use proxies to circumvent the government's fire walls.

"We invite every participant to stroll, watch or even just pretend to pass by. As long as you are present, the authoritarian government will be shaking with fear," said Wednesday's statemen

t.




China Blocks Linkedin

(Fast Company) -- Users in China are reporting that access to LinkedIn has been blocked throughout the country. By all indications, it seems that the popular career networking site has run afoul of the country's infamous Great Firewall.
According to LinkedIn's Hani Durzy, the company is aware of a blockage in China and is "currently in the process of investigating the situation further."
The shutdown follows days of calls for a "Jasmine Revolution" in China, on the model of the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions. Access to Twitter and Facebook has been blocked throughout China for some time; Chinese internet users seeking to use Twitter have been forced to access the site through difficult-to-use Virtual Private Networks (VPNs).
However, Chinese dissidents have another way of accessing Twitter... LinkedIn.
Use of LinkedIn, which is fully integrated with Twitter, was by far the easiest way to access Twitter in China. Messages can be easily read and posted through Twitter via LinkedIn.

One Chinese Twitter user who accesses both Twitter and LinkedIn through a proxy posted photos to Twitpic that seem to confirm a Chinese LinkedIn outage.
Adding credence to the LinkedIn-shutdown-to-block-Twitter strategy is the news that the Chinese government has started censoring the name of U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman from search results on the wildly popular homegrown Twitter/Tumblr clones Sina Weibo/QQ Weibo. Weibo means "microblog" in Chinese.
Huntsman faces widespread charges in China of support for the Jasmine Revolution after a citizen journalist spotted him watching a pro-democracy protest from within a crowd this past Sunday. Like any good American abroad, Huntsman was standing outside a McDonald's.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Chinese dissidents have been disseminating calls to protest and organizing events via LinkedIn. Reuters notes that the LinkedIn outagecould hurt the firm's chances at an IPO:
"If the disruption for LinkedIn is permanent in China, it could hurt the company's prospects at an IPO as a ban would exclude the company from the world's largest Internet market--about 450 million users and growing."

OH WIKI WIKI HELP ME OUT HERE -- WHAT IS CHINA'S JASMINE REVOLUTION ALL ABOUT? This is the first I've ever heard of it.

Guess not -- looks like wiki is now redirecting my inquiry

China's Jasmine revolution
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The purpose of this redirect is currently being discussed by the Wikipedia community. The outcome of the discussion may result in a change of this page, and possibly its deletion in accordance with Wikipedia's deletion policy.
Please share your thoughts on the matter at this redirect's entry on the Redirects for discussion page.
Click on the link below to go to the current destination page.
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Contents

Jasmine revolution over at wiki now redirects to Tunisian revolution

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasmine_Revolution

(see what you get when you copy and past that link)

Jon Stewart Interviews Austan Goolsbee --holy crap-- JUST SHOOT ME NOW -- get ready for your head to explode

Goolsbee is the chief economist for the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board.

He is also the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers.

He is also a member of the Cabinet

and.....

his voice is rather ghoulish. OR he didn't sober up from cocktail hour. Or like Jon, he's recovering from the boubons

Or maybe it's a new exotic kool-aid flavor?

I can't imagine the WH letting this guy out in public anymore. It's never been more clear to me that...

WE

ARE

FUCKED

No ifs, ands, or BUTTS about it folks








Here is some additional reading if you're still able to focus:

Democratizing Capitalism, by Austan Goolsbee (ca. 2006)




Democratization of capitalism and capitalization of democracy

“Capitalism is the bastard child of democracy“
~Doug Moody

Democracy + Capitalism = Corruption

“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.”
~Winston Churchill

An important message from Homeland Security regarding suspected terrorists

Saudi King rushes home; announces $10.7b new benefits

The move comes as governments in the region scramble to deal with pro-democracy uprisings sparked by youth unemployment and political repression.

As part of the Saudi scheme, state employees will see their incomes increase by 15 percent, and additional cash has also been made available for housing loans.

.....""The king is the only pillar of stability in the region now,"" said the English-language daily Arab News.

""The king returns today at a time when the Arab world is experiencing frightening developments to what he had left not only stable... but an oasis of peace and security full of love and loyalty,"" said the Arabic-language daily Okaz.

Isn't that special...


I can't seem to find this story on any of the major news feeds. It's only on a handful of blogs so far:

e115 posted it

element115
IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION ----> Serious risks associated with reading element115 include increased eye pressure, increased sweating, increased body temperature, insomnia, dizziness, confusion, and difficulty concentrating. Tell your doctor immediately if you have blurred vision of reality or brain pain. Common side effects are tingling in arms and legs, guilt, nausea, diarrhea, taste change and depression.Tell your doctor about other blogs you read.

I was just blaming all of my symptoms on "the change".

Silly me...

STAND AND DELIVER -- a MUST READ post from Ed over at Gin and Tacos...

All of the important links in this post are available here.

STAND AND DELIVER

The most random thing happened to me on Sunday evening; I fell asleep at 7:30 PM. Consequently, even though I am now more awake than any non-meth addict should be at 5 AM, the Great Big Wisconsin Post will have to wait one more day. Until then, enjoy this bit of validation of the continuing relevance of the basic exchange theory of politics.

The lion's share of attention regarding Scott Walker's legislative proposal has been paid to the effort to revoke Wisconsin public employees' collective bargaining rights, but the 144-page bill (more reliable link here) is a far more exhaustive and inclusive list of the fundamentals of Republican politics in the 21st Century. Not many people have the time to plow through the whole bill but those who do will be rewarded with plenty of gems like this:

16.896 Sale or contractual operation of state−owned heating, cooling, and power plants. (1) Notwithstanding ss. 13.48 (14) (am) and 16.705 (1), the department may sell any state−owned heating, cooling, and power plant or may contract with a private entity for the operation of any such plant, with or without solicitation of bids, for any amount that the department determines to be in the best interest of the state. Notwithstanding ss. 196.49 and 196.80, no approval or certification of the public service commission is necessary for a public utility to purchase, or contract for the operation of, such a plant, and any such purchase is considered to be in the public interest and to comply with the criteria for certification of a project under s. 196.49 (3) (b).

If this isn't the best summary of the goals of modern conservatism, I don't know what is. It's like a highlight reel of all of the high-flying slam dunks of neo-Gilded Age corporatism: privatization, no-bid contracts, deregulation, and naked cronyism. Extra bonus points for the explicit effort to legally redefine the term "public interest" as "whatever the energy industry lobbyists we appoint to these unelected bureaucratic positions say it is."

In case it isn't clear where the naked cronyism comes in, remember which large, politically active private interest loves buying up power plants and already has considerable interests in Wisconsin. Then consider their demonstrated eagerness to help Mr. Walker get elected and bus in carpetbaggers to have a sad little pro-Mubarak style "rally" in his honor. There are dots to be connected here, but doing so might not be in the public interest.

I think the "Budget Repair Bill" is Wisconsin's very own Vanguard moment.



I stumbled upon the above post in the comment section of another MUST READ post over at Mother Jones --
Plutocracy Now: What Wisconsin Is Really About

It's Worse Than You Thought

Mother Jones has put together a few charts to illustrate how bad the problem is.

And what might be the problem, you may ask.

Well you might ask, gentle readers.

The chart below illustrates the percentage of actual wealth in the United States held by quintile:


As you can see (you may need to zoom it up), most Americans think that the upper 20% of the population hold about 60 percent of the wealth. That's bad enough, but the reality is the top bar of the graph. According to this, courtesy of two guys at Harvard Business School and Duke University, the top 20% of the population hold a bit over EIGHTY PERCENT of the actual wealth in this country.

Eighty Percent.

Eighty cents out of every dollar.

To call this a minor problem is to call gang rape a mild social deviation.

If you're in the bottom quintile (that itty bitty light blue bar way to the right in the top graph), you're basically fucked, a total loss with no insurance. The article suggests that the bottom 20% makes about $31,244 a year.

So, what's the solution?

Taxes on the upper 20%. Now, before you gasp in horror at the "filthy Socialist," I'm a lifelong Republican, but unlike so many modern GOPers I'm a clear-minded thinker.

I'm not asking for much of a hike on the top tax bracket, just to what it was when Lyndon Johnson gave the right a tax cut back in 1964. That is, the top tax rate was pegged at 55.63%.

Yes, yes, yes - I can hear the Koch Brothers swooning from here, along with all the rich parvenus who used to disgrace the airwaves on VH-1's My Super Sweet Sixteen.

Get over it. I also advocate eliminating the payroll tax cap, by which those people making over $106,800 a year pay little to nothing in Social Security taxes. That's how you ensure the solvency of the social safety net for the next century, folks.

Of course, raising taxes is not popular - it's the right course of action, but not popular - but people have to realize what taxes actually are.

Taxes are fees, fees you pay for services rendered.

You like roads? Safe skies to travel in? Safe houses? Clean air? Unpoisoned food? Those are services the government provides, and for which you pay a fee.

Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, "With taxes, I buy civilization."

No taxes? No civilization.

So it's time the greedy bastards who hold a preponderance of the wealth in this country to pony up and pull their own weight. Otherwise, I call dibs on the torch and pitchfork concession.

Because this level of income disparity is something you normally associate with nations and societies like Egypt, pre-Castro Cuba, Libya, Tunisia, and so on.

The conclusions I leave as a lesson for the student.

Another brick off the Wall...

Hey! Republicans...Leave those kids alone...

We don't need no education...

Some thoughts

The difference between a union man and Politician, Wall Streeter, Bankster, Tea Bigot or Republican is when the union man hits his thumb with a hammer he doesn’t do it again.

When things are slow politically, politicians and/or the media need to invent some major crisis, even if it can’t be fixed, but to talk about it so the public will think they’re doing their job.

According to some radicals and Tea Bigots about immigration, we need to deport even those who were born here and came from illegal parents but became U.S. Citizens by birth. So do we start checking the ancestry of Sarah Palin, Jon Kyl, Johnny Boy McCain, all the Bush’s and Cheneys and 99% of current Americans? Where do we send them when we find most entered this country without registering?


Businesses today are similar to cancer or other parasitic diseases. They continue to eat away at their host never accepting, understanding or caring that they themselves will die when the host does but hoping for a cure only they can afford if they ever need it.

Today’s Republicans are the ‘niners of the 1840s. They are mining gold for themselves through business and killing off anyone who may offer competition. Get ready for the coming of the Robber Barons of the 21st Century.

What is the difference between betraying one’s country by selling [military or political] secrets or knowingly creating a bad product that harms or kills Americans and granting business a license to make money by allowing Americans to die?

...Then-Senatorial candidate Obama in 2003 branded the Patriot Act "shoddy and dangerous" and pledged to dump it. He made the pledge in response to a candidate's survey by the National Organization for Women...How's that going, anyway?

Are more men “homocritical” than women? Most men I know would love to watch two women making out yet wretch if two men were doing the same.

I feel bad for today’s youth. They’ll never know a country without fear, without lies from the government, without hatred from those who want to force others to conform to their beliefs.

Are Black Holes at the center of spiral galaxies just huge Galactic toilets we're all spiraling into?

Politics has become an addiction that only now Democrats are experiencing. The Banks, Wall Street, Big Businesses, Big Pharma are all the pushers.
The Republicans have been mainlining, pimping and pushing for decades. Now that drip has been tried by the Democrats. At first, all it took was a few. They spread it to other Democrats who in turn pushed it to others new to politics.
But it’s not in the back alleys where the shady deals happen in the dark of the night, it’s in elite country clubs, executive meetings at resorts, posh junkets to warm climates. We all know only those who frequent the back allies are the scum of the earth, the dregs of society, the freeloaders of the country unlike our upstanding politicians. Democrats are now enjoying the rapture of that back alley addiction and thinking it isn’t hurting them.
All the while, the Banks, Wall Street and Big Business along with those already hooked, like Obama and company, whisper to their confederates of streets paved with the gold of the working poor if only they stick together.
Washington, D.C. and particularly Congress, the Senate and the White House are the 1800s Asian opium dens with clients standing in line for their beds.
And it isn’t just the politicians, it’s also the media. There are varying degrees of addiction in the media from the casual using newsreader to the snorting managers to the mainlining owners.

It’s amazing how business will use the excuse that they need to hire the best qualified people to run the businesses that affect their bottom line for the management and investors; that the military promotes that it only wants the best to lead the troops and the best to fight to protect the country; that colleges hire only the best instructors to teach only the best (usually foreign paid) students to be ready for their country's tomorrow; yet to run the government, to make decisions involving literally life and death for over 300 million Americans and the trillions of dollars those Americans must repay, we do NOT require the best, the brightest, the most experienced to lead us, rather only the most popular, most malleable, those with the most money provided them by the same businesses who only want the best people working for them.

You wonder why Jon Stewart hasn’t really called out the [other] media for its lack of responsibility covering the truth. He’s hammered Fox but the others are just as bad. If it weren’t for the media's cheerleading, we wouldn’t have gone into Iraq. We might not even have the fiscal crisis we are now experiencing. Wonder who pays Jon? Oh yeah. G.E. (and NBC)

With police protection being cut nationwide, NBC reported that someone asked, “Who do we call if we need help?” I suggest you call you local Tea Party Bigot, Republican or Right Wing Evangelical representative or NRA nut. Possibly your local clergy might pray the help you need, provided you tithe properly (and tell them you're against abortion).

Get ready for the next war…Corporations vs corporations. David Brock of Media Matters is forming a left wing organization to counter the Right’s unlimited contributions to Republicans. The Right Wing idiots and useless Chamberpot of Congress will likely take this as a challenge and pump even more money into the Republican "coffins". We’re looking at a serious escalation in political cash manipulations here. Mr. President, tear down that...what? You got money from AIG and Wall Street? Imagine that!

If the government can force us to buy something from a private business (like health insurance), why can’t the government or people force business to “buy” something from them…such as the ability to do business in an area, clean up the environment, etc.? Want to get even for the government mandate? Send all your used bandages, diapers or sickness supplies to Big Pharma. Or just commit suicide (but do it in a health care office!) and make the employees dispose of your body .

Remember when we used to bitch about Bush not holding public press conferences because he was afraid of the embarrassing questions he might get?
So how many has Barry held?

Ever notice how the O-pologists and other "well-offs" all claim that Barry has to do the right thing but some have to suffer for the good of the country (Sounds positively Republican, don’t it?) Didja ever wonder how many of the O-pologists ever had to apply for LIHEAP, food stamps, cash assistance or frequent a food bank? I’m betting that number is in the really low, low digits.

Something to warm your heart this Valentine's Day...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Courtesy of our furry friends:


see more Daily Squee

And from that expert on relations, Woody Allen:



Enjoy the day!

In the End ...

It was all over quickly.

In a hasty 35-second speech, Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman nervously said the words that many Egyptians had been longing to hear:



To put it another way, it was a gentle military coup d'etat. Mubarak shoved off to Sharm el-Sheikh and his private compound there, while the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces took over the government.

But for the people massed in Tahrir Square and the people marching in Alexandria and the people rioting in Suez and El Arish, it was party time!

To put a final grace note on the Egyptian Uprising of 2011, I offer this photograph taken by journalism student Ghazala Irshad and titled "Broken Bones, Not Spirit":

This Won't End Well

All night (Egyptian local time; GMT +2) suspense had been building as the news spread: President Mubarak would speak to the nation.

Would he resign?

Would he flee the country?

Al Arabiya reported that he'd already left for the resort town of Sharm el Sheikh, and another report surfaced that Saudi Arabia had offered him a home - but hoped he wouldn't leave.

Well, I hope the Saudis are happy. In a rambling speech which I listened to (in translation, on al-Jazeera's live Web feed since my cable provider is a bunch of assholes), Mubarak stated that he wasn't leaving. He rattled off a list of commissions he had set up to investigate who killed the approximately 300 protesters who've died in this uprising, explore ways to amend the Constitution, and hinted that he might lift the temporary state of emergency Egypt has had for the past 29 years.

He also struck me as a senile megalomaniac, since in his speech he identified himself with Egypt, in the best l'etat, c'est moi style.

When he finished, the crowd in Tahrir Square, previously jubilant, was pissed.

I'll repeat that, with emphasis.

They were pissed.

Friday prayers are tomorrow, and I'm afraid there will be blood. Mubarak and his power structure are dug in like wood ticks, and will take a lot of pain and suffering before they can be ripped off the back of the body politic.

Hold onto your hats, dear readers, it's going to get about ten shades of ugly.

Cooking the Books

Bismarck, I think, said it best when he equated making laws to making sausage - you don't want to watch either one being made. It's a disturbing, lengthy and messy process.

So is setting up a budget.

Governor (p)Rick Scott of Florida unveiled his budget for next year at a Tea Party event back on Monday. Ho, ho. Judging from the list of organizations that sponsored the event, I'd expect it had the air of a tent revival. But I digress.

Scott unveiled a two-year proposal, which is rather odd considering the state constitution demands a one-year fiscal cycle. After his Tea Party function (with that forehead, one wonders how many times he can get teabagged) he took it to Tallahassee and handed it over to the legislators.

Now comes the sausage-making.

On Wednesday the Legislature slapped the Governor, saying "We'll take the budget in one year installments, so screw your two-year bullshit."

In a newspaper article today, part of the two-year budget was revealed to be smoke and mirrors, a shabby accounting trick to make the proposed budget cuts look larger than they actually are.

Of the $5.2 billion dollars of proposed cuts, only $3.5 billion are actual cuts in line items; the other $1.7 billion are just expenditures transferred from outside the state budget. Specifically, $1.3 billion from the state university system, and $453 million from the sixty-six county clerks of the court.

So yes, Governor Fraudulent has already started trying to pull the wool over our eyes, despite the slim majority of Florida voters who thought he was both the bee's knees and the wasp's nipples.

Scott also abandoned (for the moment) his stupid school-killing voucher program.

And there's still serious questions being asked about the proposed loss of 8,700 state jobs (in a state with 12% unemployment) and the possible 10 percent cut in per-student public school funding.

But you have to recall the Modern Republican Goal: Keep the masses poor, stupid and scared.

(p)Rick Scott is so far following the playbook.

Too Fast, Buckaroo

Representative Christopher Lee, Republican, representing the New York 26th District, rode into Washington DC for his second term of office this past January on a wave of Tea Party-fueled wailing and gnashing of teeth that got him re-elected back in November.

Yesterday he slunk out of Washington DC like a whipped cur, his tail between his legs.

Why?

Well, I shall tell you a tale. Unlike other tales, it is more sad than sordid.

Rep. Lee had a Craigslist account, something that should raise red flags from the start (prostitutes, female and male, use the social networking site to hawk their wares - far be it from me to restrain trade or stand in the way of capitalism). He visited the "Women Seeking Men" forum, apparently, and posted up a picture to a woman in the forum.

In the message he described himself as a 36 year old divorced lobbyist.

He's 43, with a wife and a son.

The woman did a bit of googling, found out the truth, and squawked to Gawker.com. Which broke the story. Lee's staff offered the 'explanation' that his Blackberry and Craigslist account had been hacked, but the statement was so lame that no one bought it.

Not four hours or so later, Lee tendered his resignation.

It had to be the fastest sex scandal in the history of Washington sex shenanigans, but really - resigning over misrepresenting yourself and trying several ham-handed email attempts to entice a woman? Please. It's not like he was cruising for trade in airport bathrooms (ex-Senator Larry Craig, R-Idaho), or hiring a hooker through a madam to diaper him and spank him until he wets himself (Senator Dave Vitter, R-Louisiana).

You quit too fast, Chris.

We didn't even have time to make fun of you.

The New "Confession App".............Really?

Ed Stannard from the New Haven Register has the story


It must be real -- here's the link to download the app: Confession: A Roman Catholic App The iphone app for making confession easier.

WAIT. A. MINUTE!

did someone confuse this POE's Law with Po(p)e Law?

stay AWAY from the APPle....

Lawrence O'Donnell's Last Word: Groupon is the MVP of Super Bowl Ads

Well said Mr. O'Donnell...


From Sarah Muller at TheLastWordBlog

In the aftermath of the Super Bowl there's been some backlash, and not just over the A-Rod popcorn-feeding video. Groupon has been getting tons of flack for their ads making light of the situation in Tibetan and deforestation in Brazil. To Lawrence, the discount site has nothing to apologize for. In the Rewrite, he explains why this ad was a good thing for most of the 45-million half-drunk Super Bowl viewers.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

BOHICA

Or, Bend Over; Here It Comes Again.

The criminal scumbag who became Governor of Florida, (p)Rick Scott, has a money problem. Like all other states, Florida cannot run a budget deficit, and right now it's staring at a $4 billion hole. Since much of the state's revenue is derived from property taxes, the foreclosure tsunami has hit Florida very hard.

Don't look now, but in hindsight it appears that dialing back property tax rates a couple years ago was a stupid idea.

Well, Scott (some call him Lord Voldemort, but I disagree - Scott actually has a nose) has decided to lower taxes again, depriving the state of more revenue and increasing the deficit. "Oh, but not to worry," says Scott, "we'll just cut spending!"

Well, sure - we don't need to educate our kids, or provide heath care for the elderly, or anything else for that matter.

One thing that Scott's proposing involves 'modernizing' the state retirement system. Part of that 'modernization' involves forcing new law enforcement officers, firefighters and EMTs to enroll in private sector 401(k) plans. This is stupid, as these plans are subject to market fluctuations. Many people with 401(k)s saw their retirement funds evaporate over the past two years.

The real danger here is that young people will not be willing to undertake careers in law enforcement, firefighting and emergency medical services - work that involves voluntarily getting covered in body fluids, facing down armed and dangerous individuals, or walking deliberately into a burning building to save lives - because there's no attractive pension waiting for them at the end of that long career path.

But Scott doesn't care, and it's doubtful he ever did. Having spent $70 million on his campaign ($60 million out of his own pocket, and he still damned near lost), he can afford to hire Blackwater or Xe or whatever the fuck they're calling themselves today and have his own private army of mercenaries.

One solution to the state's budgetary woes is the state income tax. Florida doesn't have one, and hasn't since the Twenties when it was decided to write that prohibition into the state Constitution in an effort to attract retirees. It might be time to revisit that.

Either way, voters in Florida voted this criminal, fraudulent asshole into office.

So bend over, Florida. Here it comes again.

Ah yes, the bimbo who wants to be president of the United States.

by blondesense liz

Huckabee's STUPID is showing.

Mike Huckabee, the "charming" man who wants to be president and believes that the earth is only 6,000 years old believes that anyone opposing new Israeli settlements where Palestinians live is guilty of "racism and aparthied." I wonder if he ever read an American history book- or any history book for that matter? We know that he hasn't read a science book in his life.

“I think there probably should be [a Palestinian state], but it doesn’t necessarily have to be on the tiny postage-stamp-size piece of land that is Israel,” he said. “I’m not against a Palestinian state. I am against, and not really against, but I’m just being realistic – I don’t see how it works to put two people and two governments right on top of each other.”

Huckabee went on to blast the Arab position – which has been adopted by the rest of the world – that the Jews must stop building in Judea and Samaria, lands claimed by the Palestinians, in order for peace to be achieved.

“To tell Jewish people, ‘You cannot live here, you cannot raise your children here,’ this is the true racism, this is apartheid,” said Huckabee. “I cannot imagine as an American being told that I could not live in certain places in America because I was Christian, or because I was white, or because I spoke English.”

Regarding his last paragraph: Wow. White, male, English speaking Christians are so darn lucky. Imagine if he were Native American or black or a Jew living in America half a century ago or a modern Muslim and wanted to build a rec center in lower Manhattan and was told he couldn't do that....

Springtime in Florida

It may still be the icy grip of winter elsewhere in the United States, but the weather down here in Flori-Duh has put this sprightly little song into my mind: