Updated Old McDonald’s Farm 21st Century Style

On Tuesday evenings  the Warren Tribune’s staff has been visiting area communities for feedback. Which brings me to my nomination for the buffoon of the week. That would be a man at one of these community gatherings that asked Editor Robinson if the “Trib” would be considered a politically middle of the road newspaper. I won’t say what community this was as I don’t want the guy’s fellow citizens to track this buffoon down and embarrass his family by making him the village idiot.

I have posted the following poem before. It is a poem I wrote a few years ago and is an open-ended poem. I add more to the poem from time to time when I see more problems in our country that need included.

Old McDonald’s Farm 21^st Century Style

McDonald’s is a burger chain,

ee-ii-ee-ii-oo.

And at this burger chain, they’ve sold

over 250 billion cardboard burgers here

with minimum wage workers there

and Styrofoam containers polluting everywhere.

ee-ii-ee-ii-oo.

 

Small farmers were replaced with corporate farms

ee-ii-ee-ii-oo.

and on these corporate farms they have

genetically altered seeds here

and steroid injected cows there

and pesticides everywhere.

ee-ii-ee-ii-oo.

 

Wal-Mart is your one stop super store.

ee-ii-ee-ii-oo.

and at this super store they have

low paid red vested associates here

with aisles of sweatshop products there

putting mom & pop stores out of business everywhere.

ee-ii-ee-ii-oo.

 

Now it’s Amazon.com, Starbucks, and Home Depot.

ee-ii-ee-ii-oo

No more independent bookstores here

or corner coffee shops there.

Gone are neighborhood hardware stores everywhere.

ee-ii-ee-ii-oo.

 

Energy Companies spent $20 million buying politicians.

ee-ii-ee-ii-oo

who will shout out,“Drill Baby Drill” here

and Youngstown has a dozen earthquakes there

while our air is polluted, water is poisoned everywhere.

Seven million gallons of water

are used to frack a single well here

Drinking water is more important than fracking water there

but the public’s thirst is overshadowed

by the oil & gas companies thirst for profits everywhere.

ee-ii-ee-ii-o

 

The GOP has declared war on our fundamental right to vote.

ee-ii-ee-ii-oo.

They win more elections when fewer people vote

so they have passed voter suppression bills,

purged voter rolls, demanded photo ID’s,

and shortened early voting time frames here.

The GOP’s bought and paid for 5-4 Supreme Court

selected the president in 2000 there.

Now the 5-4 court passed Citizens United

giving corporations the power to buy elections everywhere.

ee-ii-ee-ii-oo

 

Republican governors around the country are attacking public sector unions.

ee-ii-ee-ii-oo.

They are pushing bills designed to reduce or eliminate

their state’s public employee’s rights and benefits here.

It’s the GOP’s way of assaulting the union’s money

to weaken the union’s political influence there.

If the GOP’s job hatchet man Mitt Romney is elected

the private sector jobs not yet farmed out

will be sent to Third World sweatshops everywhere.

ee-ii-ee-ii-oo

 

All went according to corporate plans.

workers were brutalized and downsized here

consumers were hypnotized and dogmatized there

and the public was carbonized and homogenized everywhere.

ee-ii-ee-ii-oo.

 

Now monopolies own the world

and we’re fucked fucked here

and fucked fucked there

and fucked fucked everywhere.

ee-ii-ee-ii-oo

 

I love singer/songwriter Frank Turner! Check out a couple of his tunes:

Frank Turner: “Love Ire & Song”

“Thatcher Fucked the Kids”

“The master says it’s a glorious thing to die for the Faith and Dad says it’s a glorious thing to die for Ireland and I wonder if there’s anyone in the world who would like us to live.” ~ Frank McCourt, Angela’s Ashes

Beam Them Up Scotty

Local liars of the week are the crew at “Tracey and Friends” radio talk show on WSOM in Salem, OH. “Friend” Ben is constantly spreading lies and as usual they are aimed at President Obama. Like all his other lies this one was proven a lie a few years ago. Ben mentioned how Chrysler got a loan from the government and reorganized by getting rid of some dealers. Ben claimed that President Obama gave Chrysler the loan on the condition that the dealerships that stayed in business had to be owned by Democrats and the ones that closed would be owned by Republicans. Ben claimed that President Obama especially went after dealers who contributed to Republican candidates. “Friends” Sticks and Jeff jumped in to say, duh, yeah that’s right that’s the way it happened. First off, most dealerships are owned by someone who is wealthy and the vast majority of these owners are Republicans. That would mean that Chrysler would be out of business if all Republican owned dealerships were closed. Do you really believe the CEO’s (who are definitely Republicans) at Chrysler would sit still for President Obama only closing dealerships owned by Republicans or ones whose owners contribute to the Republican Party? In a Reuter’s article Chrysler stated that it made the decisions on which dealers to close based on location, customer satisfaction and sales potential. If Ben, Sticks and Jeff weren’t allergic to facts they could have done a moment’s research (like I did) and found the facts here. Instead they would rather go on the radio and look like buffoons by telling three year-old lies. I believe Ben and crew easily believed this lie because if conservatives like them had the opportunity to put business that are owned by Democrats or contribute to Democrats out of business they’d do it in a second. Thusly, it is easy for them to believe President Obama could be as ruthless as them. The best way to know it is a lie is if Michelle Malkin says it’s true.

September 19th was the 35th anniversary of Black Monday. On that day in 1977, Youngstown Sheet and Tube announced they would be shutting down the Campbell Works in Campbell and Struthers. With both plants gone so were 4,100 jobs and 40,000 within a decade. The 35th anniversary of Black Monday was the subject of a talk at the Labor Museum on Wednesday. That brings me to the buffoon of the week. On the front page of Thursday’s Vindictor is United Steelworkers District 1 subdistrict director Gary Steinbeck. Calling Gary a buffoon just doesn’t go far enough. From my days as an  IWW members I know they would call Gary a Piecard (A union official that identifies more with the boss than with the workers, or who is “on the take”). Gary was my union staff man until the plant I worked at closed in 1999. Gary was the kind of union man who walked into negotiations for the union and asked the owners what they needed. With Gary’s negotiations I lost a quarter of my pension and plenty of wages and benefits lost to concessionary contract after concessionary contract. When the majority of my fellow workers refused to accept a terrible contract from a company that wanted to buy us Gary overrode our vote (a legal action we were to find out) and signed the contract. Gary said he did us a favor as this company Hamlin Holding Company had a lot of money and would be good for us. On day one we found out Hamlin was a nickel and dime outfit as they came in and unscrewed every other light bulb. Hamlin proved they were a Bain Capital Jr. as they went on to buy Copperweld and in no time at all closed us and then Copperweld. Some suspected Gary of being in bed with the company. As for me I’d say if Hamlin had bed bugs I’m sure Gary did also. It saddens me that Gary is still representing area steelworkers and I feel for them. Here you will see Gary’s salary is $90,144.00 not counting other benefits (which is more than I ever made in any of four years added together of my 28 years at the plant). I am the most pro-union person you will find but I have no use for union staff like Gary or unions that set up different tiers for unions (there is no solidarity once you have tiers brothers and sisters).

I had lunch the other day at Crickets Bar on Midlothian Blvd. in Youngstown. They definitely have some of the best bar food in the area and I want you to check them out. I was disappointed to see such a working-class bar have that nasty union busting Yuengling beer on tap. That is just wrong and get with the program and boycott it you blue-collar bars. Anyway, a guy at the bar yells to another guy, “Did you see Dave Betras at the Canfield Fair with his nose up Joe Biden’s ass?” I wanted to yell, “Hey ahole Attorneys Betras is chairman of the Mahoning County Democratic Party, and it is his duty to show VP Biden around when he visits.” I didn’t speak up as I am finding it hard to talk to pinheads without swearing and raising my blood pressure.

You hear the same type of conservative idiots calling teabagger Dan Rivers on WKBN radio and saying, “Timmy Ryan has his head up Nancy Pelosi’s ass.” These same goofs had no problem when Jimbo Trafficant was our con in congress. They loved the fact he voted with the GOP over 60% of the time and had his head up Denny Hastert’s GOP ass. No one with a functioning brain cell would take these macho punks who hate Nancy Pelosi or any woman in power seriously. That brings me to Dr. Marisha Agana of Howland, who is challenging U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, as a candidate for Ohio’s 13th Congressional District. She is the one who paid for a billboard on Rt.680 bashing Tim Ryan. It embraces the local right-wing radio caller crackpot idea and portrays Rep. Tim Ryan as being “an obedient lapdog” for Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Pres. Obama and Sen. Harry Reid. Dr. Agana must agree with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that, “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.” Why else would she blast Rep. Ryan for working with members of his party for the good of the American people rather than putting his party first like McConnell.

The Ohio State Medical Association Political Action Committee had supported Dr. Agana but then withdrew its endorsement because in a tweet she compared President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong (she has refused to apologize for the tweet and is thankful for the public attention it got). I would suspect the Ohio Medical Association Political Action Committee decided not to support her as being in the medical field they questioned her sanity.  I was way of ahead of them as I knew she was certifiable insane when I learned she was pals with Pastor Ernie Sanders, from Newberry, OH. I’ve talked about Pastor Ernie who can be heard on local 1440 AM radio on an evening show called, “What’s Right, What’s Left.” Ernie loves to go on in length about how President Obama is a communist and wants to racially cleanse black people off of the face of the earth. Ernie missed the fact that President Obama is black. Ernie is one crazy dude and I’d put Dr. Agana in the same category because Ernie is endorsing her. Ernie has also gotten his friend, Larry Nichols to be Dr. Agana’s campaign manager. Nichols has a long history as one of former President Bill Clinton’s most outspoken critics, dating back to their days in the 1980s in Arkansas when Clinton was governor. Nichols was fired as director of marketing for the Arkansas Development Finance Authority in 1988 for misconduct because he made more than 100 calls on state telephones to Contra leaders in Nicaragua. Nichols said, “There will be people who hate me with a passion because they love Clinton, but my name will open doors.” I’m not quite sure who opens doors to officials who were fired for misconduct but I suspect it would be the same people who love Jim Trafficant. I hope for my children’s future that all of these liars, buffoons, and crazies can be as Trafficant would say, “beamed up.”

Photos of Steel Mills in Youngstown, Ohio photos

Everything Comes at a Price

Michael Fracasso: Red, White & Blue

Every advance in this half-century: Social Security, civil rights, Medicare, aid to education… one after another-came with thye support and leadership of American Labor. ~ Jimmy Carter

 

Martha Slept Through Our Erosion of Freedoms

The winner of area buffoon of the week is Martha Yoder. MS. Yoder is one of the Warren Tribune’s community columnists. Several community writers are chosen to write for the “Trib” each year. Oddly enough Editor Frank Robinson always picks conservative writers. For 9/11 Martha wrote a column entitled, “Defend our culture of freedom.” If you check out her article here you will see why she was chosen buffoon of the week. You’ll notice Ms. Yoder was able to squeeze in lots of those GOP’s buzzwords Editor Frank so loves. We have exceptionalism, patriotism, erosion of freedom (under President Obama), God, culture of dependence, “shining city on a hill” and of course, I want my country back. She states, “The last three and half years, I’ve seen changes in my country that frightened me more than the terrorists ever did.” Sorry Martha but I don’t consider saving a million auto jobs and passing a healthcare bill to provide affordable health care to all when they are ill to be more frightening than terrorists. Martha ends by calling on people to stand with her and defend the country.

Martha did you miss our erosion of freedom in 2000 when the Supreme Court stopped the counting of votes for president and installed GW Bush as president? I was frightened by such a blow against democracy and I wanted our freedoms back. That is why I went to demonstrate against Resident Bush when he came a few hours away from our area. I joined a few dozen other protestors and stood on a street next to GW’s supporters. Pennsylvania State police rounded all of us up who had signs opposed to the selected not elected president. We were escorted a mile away and forced to stand behind a chain link fence. We called the fence the “First Amendment fence.” A protestor who left our group and walked out of the fence was quickly thrown to the ground by the police, handcuffed and hauled away. GW’s supporters walked past the fence and taunted us. They could have cared less that Bush was not elected or that their country had now deteriorated to the point where free speech was now only allowed behind a fence. I knew most of the people behind that fence and you weren’t there defending our freedoms Martha. Were you one of those who walked by and called us hippies and commies and told us to get a job? Free speech was now dead and I wanted our freedoms back. Currently the GOP is working hard on voter suppression because they have realized that they win more elections when fewer people vote. They could come up with a new platform that would put people before corporations and attract more voters but it is easier to just make it harder for citizens to vote. Martha your fellow ‘Trib” right-wing community columnist Jim Dunlap says he has no problem with the voting process in the U.S. having some inconveniences to discourage some people from voting. I can imagine that Editor Robinson is very proud of Martha and Jim. I want a country where everyone has the freedom to vote.

Ms. Yoder says she was angry on Sept. 11 when we were attacked. We can certainly agree on that. I was also very angry when I learned that Resident Bush had ignored warnings about an attack and that cost almost 3,000 people their lives. Martha wants to mourn their loss but not put any blame on Bush’s negligence and I find that frightening. I want leaders for our country who will go the extra mile to protect her citizens. We lost our freedoms and country when GW led us to war with Iraq over WMD’s that weapons inspectors said didn’t exist. We now have over 33,000 dead US soldiers in Iraq and 100’s of thousands of Iraqi dead all for a lie. My country was being run by lying chickenhawk war mongers so I demonstrated against the war. I was also ashamed that my country lowered itself to torture even if our enemies did because we are above such acts of barbarism. Martha I don’t remember seeing you at any of those anti-war vigils fighting to get your country back. Just six weeks after the September 11 attacks, congress bullied by the Bush Administration passed the “USA/Patriot Act.” The senate version was sent to be voted on with no discussion, debate, or hearings or time for senators to read it. The Bush Administration stated that members who voted against it would be blamed for any further attacks. The bill vastly expanded the government’s authority to spy on its own citizens. It had many parts that violated the First and Fourth Amendments. Martha you don’t have a problem with the Patriot Act but I want a country that respects more than just the Second Amendment. I want a country where preemptive war, oil executives in charge of climate policy and waterboarding are considered unacceptable. I want a country where a Senate majority leader like, Mitch McConnell should know that the American people’s biggest need is jobs. Instead of concentrating on  jobs Mitch said “the single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.” Is that the kind of representative of the people you want Martha? It is not the kind of politician who is needed in the country I envision.

Martha you talked about our religious privileges. Those privileges were to respect other people’s religions in the USA even if Christianity had the most followers. That does not mean it is OK to burn Korans, burn mosques and shoot Sikhs. When you actually make a movie thrashing another faiths prophet you actually show how weekly you believe in your own faith. I want a country where you are free to worship or to not worship without the fear of death. Ms. Yoder in your America people defend someone’s right to shoot and kill young black men because their sweatshirt’s hood was up. You stated, “I believe that our country can still be that ”shining city on a hill.” The quote about that “shining city on a hill” (stolen from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount)  was from a Ronald Reagan speech. I figured you for a worshipper of Reagan. Are you old enough to remember the real legacy of Reagan? He kicked off his 1980 presidential campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi in front of a crowd of 10,000 white fair goers where dozens of Confederate flags waved about the fairgrounds. In Philadelphia, Mississippi in 1964 three Civil Rights Workers [one white, two black] were killed, which further ignited the Civil Rights movement. Reagan was the first presidential candidate ever to appear at the fair, and his appearance was a nod and a wink to racism. He knew that and the local white voters knew that when he told the crowd, “I believe in states’ rights.” Reagan had opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and as president he tried to weaken it. He also opposed a national holiday for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He also vetoed sanctions on the apartheid regime in South Africa. Luckily  congress overrode that racist veto. The  Reagan revolution was about rolling the clock back to the old days when blacks and women knew their place. Those days might seem like the foundation for a shining city to you Martha but they were dark days for America and I had hoped we’d never see them again in our country.

They were also dark and deadly days for up to 300,000 Latin Americans who died at the hands of various Latin American dictator’s death squads. The dead included nuns, priests, a bishop, artists, poets, musicians, union organizers, human rights activists, environmentalists, freedom fighters and women and children. I label Reagan a mass murderer because he trained, financed and armed these death squads. The Reagan era USA that did these horrific things is not the country I want back. Yet, conservatives are looking for the next Reagan without an once of shame. During Reagan’s first four years he cut federal expenditures on education and training, social services, public works, infrastructure, civilian research and development by forty percent. He succeeded in eroding public enthusiasm for social spending and that is what conservatives want to do again. We have people who’ve lost their jobs and are getting unemployment and seniors on Social Security and Medicare that they paid into. Conservatives from Rep. Paul Ryan to lowly community columnist Martha Yoder are labeling these people as having a culture of dependency. Conservatives with money like the Koch Brothers have succeeded in getting the Supreme Court to classify corporations as people. Corporations are now considered people but don’t expect one to be in a foxhole with you in a battle zone. Though they will be the one profiting from you being in that foxhole. I don’t want a country where our newest citizens are corporations granted personhood by the Supreme Court.

Martha you use the current GOP buzzword dependency but like the GOP you won’t talk about the truly greedy crowd that demands dependency at the taxpayers’ expense. That would be corporations like Walmart for example that gets $1 billion a year in the form of corporate welfare taxpayer dollars. This despite the fact they make billions every year. Then we have two-thirds of US companies that pay no taxes. These companies get corporate welfare that socialized their costs while they privatized their profits. Conservatives will say you are causing class warfare if you mention that our present day capitalism is on the dole.  I want an America with a heart and soul that wants to help the needy not the greedy. Martha says she wants to continue to have a culture of freedom where everyone can prosper. The fact is only the top 1% are prospering. They are doing it by demanding all manner of tax cuts, tax rebates, tax exemptions and subsidies. The Cato Institute estimates the U.S. federal government (taxpayers) will spend almost $100 billion on corporate welfare during fiscal year 2012. It has been estimated that state and local governments (taxpayers) provide $40–50 billion annually in corporate welfare^. Sorry Martha but that isn’t old fashion capitalism, that is a culture of dependency for corporations.

I say “Enough is enough!” Martha our freedoms have been disappearing for decades now because people like you voted for politicians whose actions eroded our country’s freedoms away layer by layer. Martha I encourage you to learn a little recent history and then you will be shocked at the country you want back. I ask all of you to think about the kind of country you want for your children and work towards delivering it to them.

Update. A letter writer to the Warren Tribune realized the Community Columnists are just one more way to get even more right-wing BS on the editorial page see here.

Terry Cullier: Fix the Blame

turn this mutha

“When facism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” ~ Sinclair Lewis

A Bus Driver and an Angel Come to the Rescue

I just hope in my lifetime a presidential candidate will say this, “We are going to go to war and use every resource we have and unlimited funds. We are going to ask all nations to be our allies and take on the world’s worst terrorist know as…….cancer.” That will be the candidate I will work night and day for. Fighting cancer is certainly a more worthwhile issue than B.S. like fighting to get prayer in school or passing a flag burning amendment. Everyone’s friends and families have been touched by this mass murderer. Common sense says that is the war we need to commit to. If only common sense wasn’t such an endangered species.

You might not believe me but I really would like to write something positive every week instead of pointing out all the negative. Luckily two people have provided me with what I’d call positive stories.

The first comes from my daughter, “the Mac” who is in her senior year of College in the Pittsburgh, PA. area. Mac went with several friends to celebrate the birthday of the last girl in her group to turn 21. Being responsible young adults they left their dorms and got on a city bus. After a few hours of drinking on Pittsburgh’s popular Southside they caught a city bus back to their dorms. The bus was filled mostly with students heading back to various Pittsburgh colleges. Mac and her friends were chatting loudly and having fun as girls will do. At one bus stop a middle-age man who was rather dirty looking got on the bus. He was near Mac and her friends and said loudly, “You girls need to shut the fuck up.” Almost immediately the bus driver smacked on the brakes and got out of his seat. He came back and stared at the rather dirty man and said, “I wouldn’t stand for anyone talking like that to my wife and daughter and I won’t have you talking like that to these girls.” He then said, “If I hear one more word out of you I will stop and throw you off this bus.” Mac said people on the bus applauded the driver. Everyone was very quiet after that except the dirty man who kept mumbling under his breath.

In these days of crazed gunmen you just don’t know who you are dealing with. In light of that I want to thank that bus driver for being there to protect my daughter.  He proves that it really does take a village to raise a child and I’m glad he is a member of my daughter’s village! It’s hard to believe we have various governors and the Tea Party who want to attack public sector workers like this city bus driver.  Shame on them and where were they to protect my daughter?

This next story comes from Robert Dennick Joki’s Facebook page.  You might think I am being lazy by not writing something myself. Truth is I couldn’t write something this good and besides at this time of year, I am busier than the workers at the lunch meat counter at Rullis.  Robert gave permission to others who asked to use it so I’m going to use it because I think it is a story that needs telling. I should note that I first met Robert Dennick Joki at the Oakland Center for the Arts at an open stage night where we was singing and I was doing some poetry. Robert has a great operatic sounding voice. He is also a writer/ actor and director of plays and also an artist who makes jewelry. He is the Executive Director of The Rust Belt Theater Company. He is also director of the Magic Carpet Theater, a valley children’s theater group that brings plays across the state, to 40-50,000 children annually. If folks like Robert have a mold we need to set up an assembly line and start production. That’s because Robert is one of those people who help make our community a better place to live.

Here is his story in his words. “Ok…so there was this middle age couple standing on the side of a dangerous part of RT 11 with an “Out Of Money/Gas” sign. I felt bad so I offered to fill their tank. On the way to the gas station the woman told me they had been walking for hours and no one would help them. We filled up a gas can at Sheetz and we drove back to their truck. When we got there I noticed it was covered in bumper stickers including ones that said “Marriage = One Man + One Woman” and my favorite “Nothing Runs Like a Queere.” This really bothered me, and my first reaction was to drive away and leave them with the two gallons of gas…but I kept my cool and we drove back to Sheetz where I paid to fill their tank. The lady kept saying I was an “angel.” The guy, Dan, asked for my address so they could mail me a check when they get home. I went back to my car, and returned with a scrap of paper, shook his hand, wished them luck, and quickly left. I did not give them my address. The paper says: “Of all the people who drove past you standing on the road today, the “Queere” is the one who stopped to help. Remember that.”

I feel better this week being able to post what I think are positive stories. I’ll get back to my usual bitching next week.

Robert Dennick Joki” “They Don’t Make Em Like They Use To”

From Rent: Your Eyes

“I think there’s just one kind of folks.  Folks.”  ~Harper Lee,”To Kill a Mockingbird”

“Ooooh That Smell”

“Ooooh that smell. Can’t you smell that smell? Ooooh that smell. The smell of death is all around you.” That is the chorus to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s 1979 song, “That Smell.” The song is about someone who is slowly wasting away because of drug abuse. They performed at the 2004 GOP convention and were welcomed back in 2012. That’s because their 2112 recording, “Last of a Dyin’ Breed” is loaded with right-wing rhetoric. They ended up not playing the 2012 GOP convention because of the storm. It’s too bad they didn’t get to perform as I think with a few chorus changes “That Smell” could have been the perfect song describing the convention. A little tweaking and we could have heard, “Ooooh that smell. Can’t you smell that smell? Ooooh that smell. The Smell of hypocrisy, lies and Bull Shit are all around you.”

First let’s start with the outright hypocrisy. A few months ago President Barack Obama spoke at a campaign rally and mentioned that the government can sometimes play a role in spurring entrepreneurship and creating jobs in the United States. The GOP took what he said out of context and said President Obama had contempt for entrepeneurs and the free market system. The GOP came up with a slogan, “We built it” to symbolize that success comes from having as little interaction with the state and federal government as possible. This theme about not needing the governments help led the GOP to invite Delaware Lt. Gov. candidate and small business owner Sher Valenzuela to deliver a speech about how businesses are better off without the government’s assistance. The hypocrisy is that Valenzuela was able to expand her upholstery business because of $2 million dollars in government loans. She has also gotten wealthy by having $15 million in mostly non-competitive government contracts. Somehow the GOP missed that Valenzuela has also given talks on urging other small business owners to follow the same strategy of seeking government funds. Seems like the GOP learned nothing about vetting people from the debacle of not vetting Sara Palin. Then we have the brazen hypocrisy of vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan. Ryan attacked Pres. Obama for TARP, new Medicare benefits, and other programs he himself voted for.

The smell of lies from vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s speech would have been enough to gag anyone with a brain. He attacked Pres. Obama for failing to keep open a Janesville, Wisconsin GM plant that closed under Pres. GW Bush in 2008. Clint Eastwood lied when he linked President Obama to invading Afghanistan when it was President GW Bush. He also suggested lawyers shouldn’t be president forgetting that Willard Mitt Romney has a law degree from Harvard Law School just like Pres. Obama. A top Romney adviser said earlier in the week, “We are not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers.” What does that say about not caring if speakers lie?

We had the smell off B.S. from Romney and Ryan who talked about what they wanted to do but gave no details as to how they could accomplish that. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christy was so vain he mentioned himself 37 times and Romney just 7 in his speech. You could see the look on Romney’s face wondering if Christy would ever get around to talking about him. Ohio Gov. Kasich also spent way more time talking about himself than Romney. The smell of B.S. symbolism was in the air. You’d be a millionaire today if you had the flag pin sales booth at the convention. Every speaker had on a U.S. flag pin. Republicans love symbols like flags and crosses. That is because symbols don’t require any actual hard work or commitment.

Then there is the red meat for the crowd of attacking what the crowd deems as symbols for the Democrats. That would be like the former Clint Eastwood (I say former as that shell of a pathetic senile old man wasn’t really Eastwood) using the word Hollywood elite. He accused  those on the left in Hollywood of being “hot doggers” meaning that the  media focuses on the deeds they do. I guess he means “hot doggers” like two-time Academy Award winner, Sean Penn. Penn has been “hot dogging” it by doing  humanitarian work in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the 2010 Haiti earthquake. I’m sure you remember the Katrina disaster. Both the hurricane’s disaster and the disastrous response to victims of Katrina by Republican President GW Bush. Sean Penn co-founded the J/T Haitian Relief Organization which runs a 55,000 person tent camp. Or did Eastwood mean that “hot dogger” Brad Pitt? Pitt supports the ONE Campaign, an organization which combats AIDS and poverty in the developing world. Brad Pitt and his fiancée, Angela Jolie established a charitable organization, the Jolie-Pitt Foundation, to aid humanitarian causes around the world. Pitt and Jolie have invested $8.5 million into the foundation. Like Sean Penn, Brad also spent time and money helping rebuild homes in New Orleans and donated $1 million to Doctors Without Borders for emergency medical assistance to help victims of the Haiti earthquake.

I tried to find some humanitarian cause “non hot dogger” Eastwood has given time and millions to but came up empty. Republicans at the convention welcomed him with open arms without finding out if he passed the smell test to be a true conservative. Republicans would not be happy to learn he contributed to groups supporting the Equal Rights Amendment for women, which was not ratified in 1982. They also wouldn’t like the fact he is pro-choice and has endorsed same-sex marriage. The “family values” Republican types might not like the smell of Clint who has been called a “serial womanizer” and has seven children to five different women. Also Clint called the Vietnam War “immoral” and has spoken out against the Korean, Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

President Obama smells funny to Republicans because he was a community organizer. Part of his job as an organizer was to help steelworkers who had lost their jobs get help with job training. Republicans would call those unemployed workers deadbeats who were looking for “entitlements.” These same Republicans agree with Democrats that jobs are the number 1 priority in this country. The Republicans have their own way of trying to create more jobs. That would be by electing Willard Mitt Romney for president who has made his fortune shutting down viable businesses and putting people out of work so he can get richer. When Mitt was governor of Massachusetts the state was 47th in job growth. Despite that Republicans feel Willard is the man to bring those jobs. Smells like stupidity to me.

Could you smell that smell of sweat? The sweaty smell was coming from the hardest working man at the GOP convention. That was the camera man who worked his ass off trying to find some black faces in the audience during former Secretary of State Condi Rice’s speech. They kept showing the same three black women over and over. That brings me to the local idiot of the week award. That goes to WSOM’s right-wing talk show host, Tracey Winbush. Tracey was one of those three black women they kept showing. She went to Florida as a delegate from our valley. Traci went to Florida to rub elbows with conservatives in the party that if they had their way blacks would still not be voting or sitting near whites. I guess Tracey doesn’t care that the GOP is trying to cut down the number of minorities who vote. To her and other Republicans the ends justify the means, no matter how illegitimate and undemocratic the means are.

“Ooooh that smell. Can’t you smell that smell? Ooooh that smell. The smell of dead and rotting ideas that never worked that were presented to the zombies at the 2012 Republican Convention. It is a deadly toxic odor that we can’t let poison our children’s future.

New GOP Ad for 2012

These Two Songs are for Clint.  Frankie Lane: Rawhide

The Good the Bad and the Ugly Theme

“The 1928 Republican Convention opened with a prayer. If the Lord can see His way clear to bless the Republican Party the way it’s been carrying on, then the rest of us ought to get it without even asking.” ~ Will Rogers