Broadway Carl 2.0

We all knew this was bound to happen. " A&E has lifted its suspension on ' Duck Dynasty' star Phil Robertson after less than two weeks. .. Last week, A&E  stated that it was disappointed in Robertson  and put him on hiatus.  But in a statement to THR on Friday (Dec. 27) , A&E said it was inviting him back. Because no filming took place during his suspension, Robertson will appear in all new episodes of the show. 'While Phil’s comments made in the interview reflect his personal views based on his own beliefs, and his own personal journey, he and his family have publicly stated they regret the “coarse language” he used and the mis-interpretation of his core beliefs based only on the article. He also made it clear he would “never incite or encourage hate.” We at A+E Networks expressed our disappointment with his statements in the article, and reiterate that they are not views we hold.'" Shorter A&E: We'd be crazy to kill our cash c...

Why?   | Movie Trailer | Review This is an indictment of our society. What kind of people are we, that we would subject ourselves to this schadenfreude? And it's our own fault. If we would just stop tuning in to see the train wrecks that make us feel better about ourselves - Honey Boo Boo, The Real Housewives of Whatever Bumfuck Town We Pulled Into, The Bachelor, Jersey Shore, Storage Wars, Swamp People, and yes, this new monstrosity called Hollywood Hillbillies - then the networks would be forced to actually think of programming content and stop thinking about how to fill a half hour slot in the cheapest possible way. Eons from now, when we've completely destroyed ourselves and future inhabitants of this planet wonder how we lived and what we did for entertainment, they'll find archival footage of a pudgy, little child beauty pageant contestant from a place called Georgia, and they'll immediately know how our civilization fell.

Phil Robertson's Comments Aren't Immune from Accountability Here we go again.  I tried. I really resisted the urge to write about the umpteenth time the right wing freaks out when someone exercises their First Amendment rights and the outrage when someone dares call them on their comments. Phil Robertson, patriarch of the Duck Dynasty family and self described "white trash" was interviewed by GQ Magazine and said some pretty ignorant things regarding homosexuality and the African American experience in the South.   "It seems like, to me, a vagina — as a man — would be more desirable than a man's anus, that's just me," the reality star said. "I'm just thinking: There's more there! She's got more to offer. I mean, come on, dudes! You know what I'm saying? But hey, sin: It's not logical, my man. It's just not logical." … "Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there," ...

If you don't know about New Hampshire Rep. Ann Kuster (D-NH) yet, you will soon enough. Kuster had a town hall style meeting to discuss her trip to Israel and to talk about the Middle East . Unfortunately, a prerequisite for discussing certain topics means you have to have knowledge of said topic. And of course, since the Live Free or Die state has it's own brand of crazy, Benghazi came up. Like a deer in the headlights soon to be road kill on I-93, Kuster seemed like she didn't even know what Benghazi was. Live Free or Die? I'm guessing Kuster would have chosen the latter at that point. Okay, a few things: The YouTube video title should not use the word "dodges," since to dodge a question means you don't want to answer and evade, but if you don't know anything about the subject you really can't dodge it, can you? Also, can you imagine Kuster's office after she got back? I'm picturing her grabbing the first staffer she sees by...

Update: I posted this piece in May 2012, but this morning, as I was reading my twitter timeline, I soon realized Scarborough was rehashing his old meme--Pres. Obama was too inexperienced to run for president and too incompetent to be president.  I thought if Joe can rehash his BS, so can I. Take That, Joe Scarborough Joe Scarborough, the former Florida congressman, full-time pundit, and pseudo-journalist, claimed Sen. Marco Rubio isn't ready to be vice president just like "'Barack Obama wasn't ready to be president in 2008, just like Sarah Palin wasn't ready to be on the national ticket in 2008.'" So Scarborough thinks Rubio, Palin, and President Obama are and were similarly unprepared to be president and vice president. Shall we take a serious look at this comparison. Scarborough is right about Sen. Rubio. In fact, he didn't go far enough. Rubio isn't just unprepared; he's the shallow GOP's pretty pet parrot. Compared to Presiden...

My friend Felice shared her experience with the California health insurance exchange on her Facebook page. She permitted me to post it here because I thought this wonderful experience needed a bigger audience.  Thank you, Felice! Here ya go:  So here is my experience with the ACA: I went to the website to sign up for health insurance coverage. I filled out the info and was directed to the California site for the ACA, called Covered California. That site informed me that since the ACA came into effect, California expanded Medicaid coverage and I was eligible.  I signed up for MediCal (online) a week ago. On Monday I was mailed an appointment at the DPSS about 2 miles from my home. I went there today.  My appointment was at 11am and I was seen within 10 minutes. A nice lady took down my information, entered it into the ACA site, which took about 20 minutes. At that point she told me I now had MediCal coverage starting January 1, 2014. However, Los Angeles Count...

My liberal husband is always arguing with some of his old conservative frat brothers on Facebook.  I know this may be difficult to believe, but I never join in the debates.  But today I just couldn't stay quiet any longer.  My reply follows: Okay now listen up. 1.       ACA is based on similar proposal from the Heritage Foundation. 2.       The GOP has been sabotaging their own plan from the day Pres. Obama presented it. 3.       House refused to fund the website as it should’ve been & continued to do so even when bipartisan members of health care reform committee requested more money.   Here is one of many differences between Dems and GOP~ Although Dems opposed Medicare Part D because it was a big Pharma giveaway, they pitched in to help the dumbass republicans who fucked up the roll out.   And before you claim ACA is bad, remember that GOP said same thing about Social S...

This is priceless.

President Obama Speaks on Reopening the Government    "So let's work together to make government work better, instead of treating it like an enemy or purposely making it work worse. That’s not what the founders of this nation envisioned when they gave us the gift of self-government. You don’t like a particular policy or a particular president, then argue for your position. Go out there and win an election. Push to change it. But don’t break it. Don’t break what our predecessors spent over two centuries building. That's not being faithful to what this country is about."

My niece @jhw2212 & Jennifer on this blog posted these "rants" on her Facebook page, but I thought they were blog-worthy. I know she speaks for so many of us. DCNM  " There is no logical reason to say something has to be traded in order to end a furlough. It is unjustifiable for it to be up for compromise. You can't force people into an economic hardship, harm the economy (which you say you are the guardian of), and create global panic, then say the only way to end all of it is for something else to be sacrificed. Willfully harming your own country in order to   get something in return is illogical. On every level. There's no reason. There is no sensible, realistic way to say this is a good idea. It even goes against the Republican Party's platform. And it's illogical to say there is a parallel argument that refusing to barter is a factor. You can't ask for something when you are doing everything wrong. It is groundless to imply that a trade-off...

The depth of ignorance in this country is breathtaking. One of the greatest contributors of this is FOX & RW talk radio.   *If you think the deficit has grown instead of being cut in half *If you think Pres Obama closed the WWII Memorial *If you think Obamacare IS the insurance *If you think the majority of ppl on food stamps are lazy African-Americans *If you the Red States aren't dependent on the tax dollars from the Blue States  *If you think the right to own any gun you wan t supersedes the 1st Amendment *If you think GOP gives a shit about you *If you think there is wide-spread voter fraud *If you think Bush & GOP didn't tank the economy *If you the GOP represents family values *If you think unions are destroying the economy *If you think GOP has done more for vets than Dems *If you think GOP has passed one jobs bill *If you think the photo of PBO & staff watching take down of OBL is really the attack on Benghazi   *If you think Reagan didn't r...

Averting a Government Shutdown and Expanding Access to Affordable Healthcare "If Congress doesn’t pass a budget by Monday – the end of the fiscal year – the government shuts down, along with many vital services the American people depend on. On Friday, the Senate passed a bill to keep the government open. But Republicans in the House have been more concerned with appeasing an extreme faction of their party than working to pass a budget that creates new jobs or strengthens the middle class. And in the next couple days, these Republicans will have to decide whether to join the Senate and keep the government open, or create a crisis that will hurt people for the sole purpose of advancing their ideological agenda...   I will work with anyone who wants to have a serious conservation about our economic future. But I will not negotiate over Congress’ responsibility to pay the bills it has already racked up. I don’t know how to be more clear about this: no one gets to thr...

Twitter, we have a sister, @keepitcleva, who could use some help. I know, I know. You have either been burned by someone on twitter or you've watched it happen with all the accompanying twitter drama. I sympathize with you, believe me. I was burned badly by a twitter "friend" and my poor judgment is the only excuse I can give. I'm still embarrassed by my experience. Having said that, I've also built some strong friendships with twitter friends beyond the confines of twitter. I'm only sharing this with you so you know that I know risks abound when you decide to help someone you don't know. Cleva and I have been following each other for about 1 1/2 to 2 years, and in that time we've developed a friendship. We have never met one another, but we chat on the phone and text, tweet, and Facebook. Here's what I know about Cleva. She's a single mom with two kids, a nineteen-year-old son and a twelve-year-old daughter. She works for the county of Sac...

Congress Must Act Now to Pass a Budget and Raise the Debt Ceiling "... after five years spent digging out of crisis, the last thing we need is for Washington to manufacture another... ...This is important: raising the debt ceiling is not the same as approving more spending.  It lets us pay for what Congress already spent.   It doesn’t cost a dime, or add a penny to our deficit.  In fact, right now, our deficits are already falling at the fastest rate since the end of World War II.  And by the end of this year, we’ll have cut our deficits by more than half since I took office... Democrats and some reasonable Republicans are willing to raise the debt ceiling and pass a sensible budget – one that cuts spending on what we don’t need so we can invest in what we do.  And I want to work with those Democrats and Republicans on a better bargain for the middle class.   But there’s also a faction on the far right of the Republican party w...

There are two editorials in The Washington Post today. The liberal leaning Fareed Zakaria wrote " Obama on the path to success in Syria " while conservative leaning Michael Gerson titled his piece, " Obama's missteps in Syria lead to retreat ." And so it goes. The Grand Canyon-like chasm that divides along party lines would be laughable if it weren't so pathetically sad. And before I go any further, no, both sides don't do it.  As Steve Benen notes : "I suppose this is about the point at which some will suggest Democrats are equally guilty of playing politics with foreign policy and national security, but recent evidence points in the exact opposite direction.  For much of the Bush/Cheney era, Democrats were, often to the chagrin of their base, willing to be constructive partners with Republicans -- large numbers of Democratic lawmakers voted to authorize the use of force in Iraq in large numbers; they backed the PATRIOT Act; and they...

... those who decided to actually vote. A friend of mine wrote this on his Facebook status: "The population of NYC was 8.2 million, as of 2011. 257,000 people voted for Bill DeBlasio. Assuming no runoff & a Democratic victory in the general, 3% of NYC decided our next mayor." THREE PERCENT. Now I know that primary election turnouts have historically always been low, but there were five candidates running in the Democratic primary. Does anyone want their voice heard? A total of 599,035 as of this writing, voted in the Democratic primary. A pathetic 56,817 (and counting) voted in the Republican primary , and winner Joe Lhota received 29,909 of those votes. Taking my friend's theory even further, if by some chance Lhota should win the general election (and hey, we haven't had a Democratic Mayor in New York City since NINETEEN-EIGHTY-FUCKING-NINE ) then .3%, that's three-tenths of one percent , of New Yorkers will have decided the next mayor. I'm a...

Twelve Years Later Has it already been twelve years? I've written this before, but it bears repeating so that I will always remember where I was on September 11, 2001. Written in June, 2009, after the death of Michael Jackson: "I was the assistant production electrician for the Michael Jackson 30th Anniverasry Concert at Madison Square Garden. We worked for a solid week getting this rig together  - by solid, I mean 16 hour days - and the stars that performed that weekend included Usher, Ray Charles, Liza Minelli, Britney Spears and the rest of the Brothers Jackson. There were two concerts, one on Friday night and one on Monday night celebrating the 30th Anniversary of Michael Jackson and The Jackson Five. After the second concert we worked all night to load out the show and ended at about 10am... on the morning of September 11, 2001." You can watch some of the concert video here . It's a little eery watching the crowd having so much fun and then ...

There will be a day, probably in the near future, where Stand Your Ground Against An Unarmed Youth hero George Zimmerman will kill another person.  Since his acquittal of murdering Trayvon Martin, Zimmerman can't get out of his own way. For a while I wondered why? How could his continuing run ins with the law or playing good Samaritan  constantly make the news? I suppose if you're minding your own business, you wouldn't constantly be in the spotlight. But if you're looking for trouble, trouble will find you. "' He punched my dad in the nose my dad has a mark on the nose. I saw his glasses were on the floor,' Shellie Zimmerman said in the call. 'He then accosted my father then took my iPad out of my hands. He then smashed it and cut it with a pocketknife, and there is a Lake Mary city worker across the street that I believe saw all of it.'   Shellie Zimmerman tells her father on the call to get behind a car. 'I don't know if he...

Calling For Limited Military Action In Syria "As the leader of the world’s oldest Constitutional democracy, I also know that our country will be stronger if we act together, and our actions will be more effective. That’s why I asked Members of Congress to debate this issue and vote on authorizing the use of force.    What we’re talking about is not an open-ended intervention. This would not be another Iraq or Afghanistan. There would be no American boots on the ground. Any action we take would be limited, both in time and scope – designed to deter the Syrian government from gassing its own people again and degrade its ability to do so.  I know that the American people are weary after a decade of war, even as the war in Iraq has ended, and the war in Afghanistan is winding down. That’s why we’re not putting our troops in the middle of somebody else’s war.  But we are the United States of America. We cannot turn a blind eye to images like the ...

Note:   Earlier this week I published a post about narcissism in zealots, and I used Tim Wise as an example. I also mentioned David Sirota because it was a twitter storm erupting around their tweets that inspired Part I: Tim Wise Meets a Buzz Saw Called Black Twitter . Initially, I planned to write about both men in one post, but there was such an abundance of material, I split the post into two parts.    I don't like David Sirota. Honestly, I loathe him. I'm not one who usually loathes, but then again, I haven't encountered anyone with so many loathsome qualities, except Glenn Greenwald, who is vastly superior in the loathsome quality category.   Anyone who has had an encounter with Sirota is well aware of his inflated sense of his own  self-importance as well as his mistaken notion that he possesses a great intellect. Forgive me for using an old clich é , but if you look up the definition of narcissism in Webster's, you'll see Sirota's picture. Combin...