This is to inform all of you that a new blog has been set up by some local liberals for the public to express progressive view points and comments to counter the Conservative Republican lies and distortions we are subject to from the VND, Fox Noise, Cable Television, Right Wing Hate Radio (104.7 FM and even KDKA Radio) and the Main Stream Media in general.

It is a chance for liberals and progressives to voice their opinions on political matters whether they are national, state, or local...and that includes local communities and all school boards.


Here is the link:

Liberaltymes

http://liberaltymes.blogspot.com

It also shows that P.T. Barnum was a right.

I present you with:

Another local graduate of the Fox News Vocational Rehab School of Journalistic Propaganda.

IQ test for Congress

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Read more: IQ test for Congress - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

I believe real unemployment is 20 percent or more. The national debt is over $14 trillion and spiraling upward. Programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are heading toward insolvency. Given these circumstances, I would think our leaders in the U.S. Congress would focus all of their efforts on resolving these major issues.

Instead, Democrat members of Congress like Maxine Waters, John Kerry, Jesse Jackson Jr., Nancy Pelosi, Diane Feinstein and Andre Carson spend their time attacking the tea party and Fox News. Why, rather than solving America's problems, do they spew vile insults, fuel class warfare and make incendiary accusations of racism?

The answer is that they spent the last six years implementing failed policies and realize that they have no accomplishments to offer in the 2012 election. The only cards they have left to play is to avoid the issues and focus on smearing their opponents. This is a despicable tactic at any time, but especially now, when so many Americans are being hurt by the prolonged poor economy.

The recent asinine statements from the aforementioned Congress members make a good case for instituting some type of IQ test to qualify candidates for Congress.

Michael G. Bitterice

Freeport

Kind of a shame we have such greedy teachers in this district. Teachers who don't care about the community or even their peers...WAIT!

Oh, that's right. nearly half of them live in other districts and pay lower taxes, so they're keeping even more of Highland Taxpayer's Money!


Greedy bastards!


School superintendent gives up $800k in pay

Source: Yahoo/AP

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — Some people give back to their community. Then there's Fresno County
School Superintendent Larry Powell, who's really giving back. As in $800,000 — what would
have been his compensation for the next three years.

Until his term expires in 2015, Powell will run 325 schools and 35 school districts with
195,000 students, all for less than a starting California teacher earns.

"How much do we need to keep accumulating?" asks Powell, 63. "There's no reason for me to
keep stockpiling money."

Powell's generosity is more than just a gesture in a region with some of the nation's
highest rates of unemployment. As he prepares for retirement, he wants to ensure that his
pet projects survive California budget cuts. And the man who started his career as a high
school civics teacher, who has made anti-bullying his mission, hopes his act of generosity
will help restore faith in the government he once taught students to respect.

While newspapers seem to be going the way of the Iron Horse, many remaining are owned by extreme right wingers. Such is the case with the epidemic of Graduate Readers and Viewers of Fox News writing letters to the editor of the Pittsburgh Based Tribune- Review. The “Trib” as it’s unaffectionately known is the extreme right wing rag owned by the Scaifes. (Tribune - definition from dictionary.com is:a person who upholds or defends the rights of the people.) Try not to laugh, you may be reported!

They own a number of newspapers in the Southwestern portion of Pennsylvania having bought out most of the Gannett Papers in the early 90s. Gannett, at least around here was reasonably neutral to left leaning, publishing editorial content from both sides of the aisle. That changed during the great purge of the 90s when Republicans decided to buy everything they could to try their hand at brainwashing the public.

This area used to be quite heavily Democratic but thanks to the propaganda the Scaife’s papers have spewed over the last 20 years, that is changing, and not for the good.

When only one view is offered in whatever media is available, truth suffers. (Case in point: Right Wing Talk Radio, primarily AM, over the last 20 years by the likes of Limbaugh and Company aimed primarily at the poorly informed elderly and not too concerned, no too bright youth.)

Here are some recent letters to the editor that the mindless automaton editor of one local paper makes sure gets VERY slanted Right Wing coverage.

These writers, for the most part, are currently enrolled or recent grads of the Fox News College of Propaganda.

However, not all letters are from right wingers. One or two are published every couple of months to try to make the rest of the radical right believe just how fair and balanced they are.

I don’t know how many of you have to read this kind of tripe in your papers. I’m especially fond of the recurring “liberal media” theme these less than grade school educated Fox Viewers continually exhibit.

Enjoy…if you can. This is the future of America.

Reliving history

Monday, August 22, 2011
Both sides of the political aisle have rewritten history. The Democrats turned FDR from the flawed power-hungry man he was into a god that pulled our country out of the Great Depression. What a pile of rubbish! Obama will probably use a few of FDR's tricks next year.
The Great Depression started in 1929 under Republican Herbert Hoover. During the election of 1932. FDR stated he would end the Depression. He won. The Depression hung on. In the beginning of 1936, a presidential election year, the economy seemed to improve. There were more jobs and money around. Things were looking better. FDR was re-elected.
All FDR had done was greatly increase government-created jobs in 1936. In 1937, he slashed government spending to pre-1936 levels and the economy collapsed into an even deeper depression.
Also, he directed most of the increased spending toward not solidly Democrat-controlled states. He was attempting to buy votes. It worked.
He did the same thing in the 1940 presidential election. It worked again. Some voters never learn.
In 2009, President Obama needed the stimulus package immediately to save our country from ruin. He had "shovel ready" jobs lined up. Most people do not realize that not all of that money has been spent yet.
2012 is a presidential election year. I predict that the held-back stimulus funds will be used to temporarily bolster the economy next year. Of course, the funds will truly be spent then and the economy will slump again in 2013. But if Obama gets re-elected, Democrats will consider it money well spent.

Kathleen Bollinger
Fawn Township

Can't wait for 2012

President Obama is using a taxpayer-funded, million-dollar bus to campaign for his 2012 re-election.
The audience may change but his message remains the same: higher taxes for all who pay taxes.
In the 2 1/2 years that Obama has been in office, our unemployment rate has remained above 9 percent, the housing market has tanked, the stock market is at new lows and our nation's credit rating has just been downgraded. Obama's excuse for his lack of leadership: former President Bush, the House of Representatives and, recently, the Tea Party. This president takes responsibility for nothing. It's always someone else's fault. Thank God, we only have another year and a half to put up with his nonsense.
When President Obama's party had complete control of Congress for the first two years of his term, what did he accomplished except passing an unpopular health care bill that may be unconstitutional? Where are all the jobs that his stimulus spending was suppose to create? The only beneficiaries have been teacher pension plans and public service unions.
Since President Obama took office, we have seen gasoline prices rise to $4 a gallon. We have seen him bypass Congress and appoint "czars" to fill critical positions. The president does this while the liberal news media looks the other way and pretends that this is normal operating procedure. Where are the cries of "It's the economy, stupid" that the elder President Bush endured? President Obama has taught Americans a valuable lesson: don't elect a community organizer to do a president's job.
Rudy Gagliardi

Tea party folks

Wednesday, August 17, 2011
The tea party came about in response to the out-of-control, bloated, oversized government. But according to recent comments from Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and former Democrat presidential adviser David Axelrod, the tea party people are fundamentalist, gun-totin' red-neck bigots — just a bunch of NASCAR-lovin' retards.
Actually, the tea party folks are people like you and me who are actually appalled at the size of our debt and appalled that our government is growing faster than our economy.
People like Kerry and Axelrod would have you believe the tea party folks are truly radical people with radical ideas. You know, radicals who believe in less government, less spending, fewer taxes and less regulation -- less everything from our supersized government. These are not progressive ideas. FDR was one of our first presidents to pass off big government and big spending as progressive -- code language for a more-caring, more-enlightened government.
But thanks to these tea party types, we are in the beginning stages at dismantling progressive thought and big government.
Many think we do not have much time to do this and they're right. We have exactly 16 months.

George Wesolosky
Freeport

If anyone can make sense of this next one, I'd really appreciate your perspective. A number of people have read this and are totally flummoxed by the less than obvious perception and depth of the author. However, this letter typifies the education of the Right Winger and Fox Viewer.

Are you a liberal?

Regarding the recent letters trying to define "liberal" and "conservative," and borrowing from comedian Jeff Foxworthy, here are a few of my observations:
• If you think it's OK to pick and choose which clauses in our Constitution are actually binding, you might be a liberal.
• If you think there actually is a "separation of church and state" clause in the Constitution and that religious people are our greatest threat, you might be a liberal.
• If you think pregnancy is a disease and should be controlled by government funding of birth control and abortion, or if you think parents should be notified if their teenage daughter wants her ears pierced but not if she wants an abortion, you might be a liberal.
• If you think people should go to work and submit to random drug testing so money can be taken away from them and given to people who don't go to work and don't have to submit to any drug testing, you might be a liberal.
• If you think the government has its own stash of money and it doesn't have to take it away from someone else to give it to you, you might be a liberal.
• If you are among those who want to change the traditional Judeo-Christian face and values of this country, but think it's the rest of the country that is radical, you might be a liberal.

Bob McBride
West Deer

And here is the token left wing letter of the last couple of months.

Tea party moms

Sunday, August 21, 2011
If you've ever had a child play a team sport, then you know this soccer mom: the "pitbull with lipstick."
She's the one screaming at the coach because her kid can't just play, but has to be the star -- the kid who has to take center stage despite not knowing the game's fundamentals or rules of sportsmanship.
This soccer mom has to get her way and doesn't care if she's the cause and effect of the loss. She walks away swearing that if everyone had just listened to her, the team would have won.
Come to think of it, terrible soccer moms are just like the tea party. Both have the same lack of honor — just self-interest — and the "How do I win?" mentality.
Our representatives take an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution and do what is right for the country and the people, not just themselves and a few cronies.
Take a moment and think. Then get out and vote. It counts.

Everett Ream
Tarentum

The same stupid people who put Wantland, Heasley and Wisner on the Highlands School Board are the very same ones who can't think for themselves to get rid of the POS Altmire and his master, Barry as they give everything you have and will have to the Corporations of America.

If you can't see that, you deserve the suffering that WILL come thanks to The Republicans, Democrats, President and Corporations.

Listen to this piece. I know it's 22 minutes long but you may learn something. And if any of you disagrees with this piece or me, leave a comment but tell me why you disagree...not just because Fox says something or the lame-ass media you so believe in tells you something.

Do yourself a favor and look for the facts elsewhere. If you don't, you're no better than the millions who followed the Germans in the 30s.

Very interesting at around the 8:25 portion!
But I'm sure it will fall on deaf-e-cate full ears.

"la-la-la-la...I can't hear you!", said the O-pologist!

From Crooks and Liars:


The GOP-dominated PA state house approved their new budget last night, and thanks to a lot of tricky last-minute bills, amendments and little public input, it looks like a right wing Christmas list -- with Gov. Tom "I'm Owned by The Gas Industry" Corbett as Santa Claus. About the only bright spot in this mess is that a last-minute push for school vouchers failed -- but Corbett says he'll bring it back in the next session. The other highlight is that the budget displaces many, many costs to the local municipalities under the guise of "preventing" tax increases:

When is the local piece of paper trash and it's brown-shirted managers going to vent their collective spleens at the Republican Governor (Tommy "Space Cadet" Corbett) and the Republican run legislature for their "late night" meetings to screw the public?

VND reporter Tommy Yerace has no problem covering the Highlands board Meetings so his masters can bitch about questionable procedures and "illegal" meetings. The ultra right wing partisans at the editorial part of the garbage dump that passes itself off as a newspaper don't have the balls to report or editorialize about the "secret meetings" Pa. Republican lawmakers have held to add shit to the budget that will help big business and hurt the people.

Come on, Dom. Get your head out of Richard's butt and at least pretend to be a journalist or whatever you think you are.

Let's see a front page report on those late night Republican meetings and while you're at it, kindly show the residents here, especially seniors, how cutting spending like the asinine Ryan Plan, when there's no money coming in to workers, will lower the budget deficit in Pa. or the U.S.?
Betcha can't do it!


These are the people you residents voted for - at work late at night so that you have no input into what they decide is best for you.

Are you voters really so stupid to believe that the person with the best ads, biggest lies and nicest haircut are the most qualified to run this state? Why don't you vote for Paris Hilton or Britney Spears? They are as qualified and maybe more so!

But you know better and now you're bitching because Tommy Corbett cutting education funds so that your local taxes will go up; so that the costs of everything you buy will go up rather than see a Republican tax the Marcellus Gas Drillers , who, by the way, in case you live under a rock and only watch network TV, the majority of Marcellus Drillers have been bought by Exxon/Mobil and other big oil companies! Guess what that's going to do to natural gas prices? Don't forget, now that the Marcellus shit is owned by big oil, they don't have to pay any tax on the Pa. gas (thanks to "No Tax for Big Business" Tommy) they get while being able to charge you outrageous prices! Nice deal...for them. Screwing for us. And you're ready to blame everyone but yourselves for not trying to learn all you can about the issues...probably because it may take up 20 minutes of your valuable Dancing with the Stars or Survivor time.


That's right. The majority of the GAS rights in Pa. now belong to Big Oil with their subsidies and tax breaks. And you bitch about the deficit and Social Security and Medicare?

Remember! YOU voted to allow these Republicans to screw you, so don't complain...
at all!

Tip o' the hat to Anna at
millsriverliberal

This guy is an idiot. He's bad for Pennsylvanians, especially for seniors and the young who absolutely NEED to be educated.
He has no concern for anyone other than business and the wealthy.

But the most interesting and ridiculous comment he's made is :
Bluntly, Corbett said education is not a must have but a nice-to-have.


What a piece of fecal matter this space cadet is. Of course, he got his education in a public school then had enough money to go to college so now it's time for him to deny others the RIGHT of a basic education...unless you want to pay a private business to give you what ever they consider an education. The man is morally despicable.

The Corbett Dilemma: Close Schools, Build Prisons
by dymeck

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett's new state budget is expected to be put into law by July 1, 2011. That is when the new fiscal year begins for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
In his budget comes steep cuts for education but also, Gov. Corbett is continuing the plans to build more prisons.
Hence, the Corbett Dilemma. Close schools and slash funding for education and build more prisons.


Governor Corbett is demanding that there be $1 billion cuts in education. Meanwhile, the Governor is continuing with plans (initiated under previous Governor EdRendell ) to build three more State Correctional Institutions. The cumulative cost of these three state prisons is expected to be at least $600 million.

In January, the Pennsylvania State Auditor General Jack Wagner warned against using taxpayers dollars to build new prisons.
He said the prison population has increased from barely 8,000 inmates in 1980 to more than 51,000 now.
The average cost of keeping one prisoner locked up, meanwhile, has nearly tripled from $11,000 a year to $32,000.

There were expected to be four prisons built but one project was cancelled. Unfortunately, the majority of Pennsylvanian's find acquiring gainful employment hard to come by and the cancelling of this state-run prison construction is going to cost the area ofHuntingdon County nearly 650 would-be jobs.

The Corbett Dilemma is transfixed on cutting costs yet by maintaining a judicial system set on keeping people incarcerated, defunding education, and still not allowing a competitive market for job creation (outside of the prison-industrial complex), Corbett is dead-set on refusing to introduce new taxes, increase new taxes, or tax the booming natural gas industry in Pennsylvania.

Never mind you that Gov. Corbett was a lawyer for the energy industry earlier in his career.
Corbett's budget introduces cuts to services that help the disabled and the elderly as well as cuts to K-12, early, and higher education, as well as a proposed deduction in the state workforce by at least 1,500 jobs.

Times are tough. When simultaneously discussing the cuts to education and the desire to not tax the natural gas industry, Corbett said his budget was about the "musthave's and the nice-to-have's."

Bluntly, Corbett said education is not a must have but a nice-to-have. Meanwhile, the Commonwealth is in a $4 billion hole and taxing the exponentially booming natural gas industry is not a must have.

The Corbett Dilemma is a fierce one. This can't easily be solved but one way to help steer clear of continued problems financially in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is to cut costs across the board with the Department of Corrections, which runs the prisons. Second, those costs which could be cut could open up to maintain the current level of funding plus some for education. Meanwhile, even more revenue will be generated by lightly taxing the natural gas industry and keeping the money in the areas where natural gas drilling is occurring to stimulate local development for those communities.

No, Corbett does not see things this way. He is continuing to maintain the status quo with the big natural gas industry while continuing to hit the regular folks the hardest.

Unfortunately for Pennsylvanians, the Corbett Dilemma is going to hit everyone hard. If Gov. Corbett was not raised in such a wealthy family he may understand this, instead, his values are paid in full by the energy industry.

This guy is an idiot. He's bad for Pennsylvanians, especially for seniors and the young who absolutely NEED to be educated.
He has no concern for anyone other than business and the wealthy.

But the most interesting and ridiculous comment he's made is :
Bluntly, Corbett said education is not a must have but a nice-to-have.


What a piece of fecal matter this space cadet is. Of course, he got his education in a public school then had enough money to go to college so now it's time for him to deny others the RIGHT of a basic education...unless you want to pay a private business to give you what ever they consider an education. The man is morally despicable.

The Corbett Dilemma: Close Schools, Build Prisons
by dymeck

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett's new state budget is expected to be put into law by July 1, 2011. That is when the new fiscal year begins for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
In his budget comes steep cuts for education but also, Gov. Corbett is continuing the plans to build more prisons.
Hence, the Corbett Dilemma. Close schools and slash funding for education and build more prisons.


Governor Corbett is demanding that there be $1 billion cuts in education. Meanwhile, the Governor is continuing with plans (initiated under previous Governor EdRendell ) to build three more State Correctional Institutions. The cumulative cost of these three state prisons is expected to be at least $600 million.

In January, the Pennsylvania State Auditor General Jack Wagner warned against using taxpayers dollars to build new prisons.
He said the prison population has increased from barely 8,000 inmates in 1980 to more than 51,000 now.
The average cost of keeping one prisoner locked up, meanwhile, has nearly tripled from $11,000 a year to $32,000.

There were expected to be four prisons built but one project was cancelled. Unfortunately, the majority of Pennsylvanian's find acquiring gainful employment hard to come by and the cancelling of this state-run prison construction is going to cost the area ofHuntingdon County nearly 650 would-be jobs.

The Corbett Dilemma is transfixed on cutting costs yet by maintaining a judicial system set on keeping people incarcerated, defunding education, and still not allowing a competitive market for job creation (outside of the prison-industrial complex), Corbett is dead-set on refusing to introduce new taxes, increase new taxes, or tax the booming natural gas industry in Pennsylvania.

Never mind you that Gov. Corbett was a lawyer for the energy industry earlier in his career.
Corbett's budget introduces cuts to services that help the disabled and the elderly as well as cuts to K-12, early, and higher education, as well as a proposed deduction in the state workforce by at least 1,500 jobs.

Times are tough. When simultaneously discussing the cuts to education and the desire to not tax the natural gas industry, Corbett said his budget was about the "musthave's and the nice-to-have's."

Bluntly, Corbett said education is not a must have but a nice-to-have. Meanwhile, the Commonwealth is in a $4 billion hole and taxing the exponentially booming natural gas industry is not a must have.

The Corbett Dilemma is a fierce one. This can't easily be solved but one way to help steer clear of continued problems financially in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is to cut costs across the board with the Department of Corrections, which runs the prisons. Second, those costs which could be cut could open up to maintain the current level of funding plus some for education. Meanwhile, even more revenue will be generated by lightly taxing the natural gas industry and keeping the money in the areas where natural gas drilling is occurring to stimulate local development for those communities.

No, Corbett does not see things this way. He is continuing to maintain the status quo with the big natural gas industry while continuing to hit the regular folks the hardest.

Unfortunately for Pennsylvanians, the Corbett Dilemma is going to hit everyone hard. If Gov. Corbett was not raised in such a wealthy family he may understand this, instead, his values are paid in full by the energy industry.

Once again, politics (Bush's oxymoronic "Clean Water Act") takes care of business and doesn't care about the consequences...as long as they get their money.

From Op-Ed News:
The Corporate State's Public Image Execution of Rashard Mendenhall
By Andrew Steele

Last week, after Americans ripped the last bit of meat off the bones of the alleged bin Laden kill, the herds turned their rage onto football star Rashard Mendenhall for tweeting his opinions regarding the death celebrations and his suspicions about the collapse of the Twin Towers on 9/11.

Though Mendenhall's words reflect the opinions of many Americans, because of his celebrity status the media control machine quickly jumped into action, making sure that his public image execution was swift and brutal, and that other celebrities who might consider speaking their minds about 9/11 and the moral decline of America get the message loud and clear -- shut up and smile...if you even think about mentioning this stuff, your name is dead.

As USA Today stated in a paragraph that sounds more like a threat than an insight:

"The Steelers have also run away from Mendenhall's comments. Mendenhall issued a clarification Wednesday. But it didn't help. Just more proof that athletes and celebrities should be careful before they hit the send button on their tweets."

Though as words written on paper, the First Amendment remains in the books (for now), in reality the statist culture of 21st century America and the corporate media's control over public perception neutralizes free speech through pysops (like the bin Laden "death") and mass peer pressure. Like a wired piece of cheese that electrocutes the mouse that bites it, anyone who uses their free speech to express what the state deems "unpopular" opinion is imprisoned behind walls of manufactured public scorn. The government still occasionally gives lip service to constitutional rights of free speech, although less and less as time passes and as public indoctrination urging acceptance of the police state continues. The reality makers on TV and in newspapers have seized total control of a decadent mainstream American culture, turning it against anyone who dares to tell the truth.

People who question the official story of 9/11 have been featured as dangerous fictional villains on TV crime shows, have been falsely accused of supporting mass shooters by fake patriot mouthpieces like Glenn Beck, and associations with them have been portrayed as potentially criminal by vacant windbags like Bill O'Reilly. This is not by chance. It is part of a continuing media campaign designed to quarantine the 9/11 Truth Movement and squash any reasonable questions about the event that the general public may have before those questions catch fire and the nation's common sense is reawakened.

This is why, in a country that quickly forgives athletes who abuse women and do drugs, one who dampens the jubilation of the bin Laden death celebrations by holding a mirror to America's face, and who points out the obvious impossibility of the government's explanation for the Twin Towers' collapse, is essentially spat upon and crucified for all to see. As the intent of these image attacks become more obvious and more vicious...and as the lies and inconsistencies regarding events like 9/11 and the bin Laden "death" get bigger and bigger...the establishment shows its hand even more.

Years in the future, Americans may look back on this period of history with a more critical eye as an era of darkness and deceit. However, many who lived it will likely lie to their offspring and themselves about who they were during these years, secretly ashamed of their once narrow view of the world and their inability to acknowledge the reality of the situation in front of them until it became more popular to do so.

The solace for people who tell the truth -- like Rashard Mendenhall -- is that they'll have nothing to apologize for...not to the people overseas and at home who have died because of the American public's willful retreat from reality (as well as their consciences' surrender to brazen criminals), or to themselves for choosing to hide in the hollow embrace of acceptance by a culture that has now rebranded ignorance, death, and empire as "humanitarian" and patriotic.

That's something more important than fame, and which no amount of money can ever buy.

From Tom Wright at the Guardian:
Couldn't be any more on the nose!

America's exceptionalist justice

(Excerpt)
Consider the following scenario. A group of Irish republican terrorists carries out a bombing raid in London. People are killed and wounded. The group escapes, first to Ireland, then to the US, where they disappear into the sympathetic hinterland of a country where IRA leaders have in the past been welcomed at the White House. Britain cannot extradite them, because of the gross imbalance of the relevant treaty. So far, this seems plausible enough.
But now imagine that the British government, seeing the murderers escape justice, sends an aircraft carrier (always supposing we've still got any) to the Nova Scotia coast. From there, unannounced, two helicopters fly in under the radar to the Boston suburb where the terrorists are holed up. They carry out a daring raid, killing the (unarmed) leaders and making their escape. Westminster celebrates; Washington is furious.
What's the difference between this and the recent events in Pakistan? Answer: American exceptionalism. America is subject to different rules to the rest of the world. By what right? Who says?

Thanks Paul Ryan, for reminding voters the GOP wants to kill Medicare & Social Security




From Wonkette
We’ve been too busy celebrating Pagan Earth Day with a bunch of wiccans and gay wizards, at Hogwarts, to notice the new consensus about nervous GOP weirdo Paul Ryan: He apparently finished off the entire “tea party movement” the Koch Brothers created by simply admitting what the Corporate Far-Right has been trying to do for half a century: Destroy Medicare, destroy Social Security, and leave 80% of the country (including the deluded working-class “GOP base”) to fuck off and die in old age, as soon as they’re no longer able to stand up at the Wal-Mart cash register. Congratulations, Paul Ryan! Also, congratulations to Stephen Goldstein at the Sun Sentinel for writing perhaps the most vicious description of GOP heartthrob Paul Ryan we’ve ever seen.

You really want to enjoy this whole column, but here’s the metaphysical kick in the crotch:

Whiz kid wannabe, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., will be the unwitting savior of the Democratic Party and cause of his party’s humiliating defeat. He issued his penny-pinching “Path to Prosperity” before the president spoke about our debt and deficit. For the unveiling, image consultants gave the Wisconsonite a new hairdo to soften his usual menacing part and ghoulish gaze, but they couldn’t change the mean-spirited, elitist strategy to which he committed Republicans: Adiós — Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid; Hola — tax cuts for the drowning-in-money.

No matter how much the demagogues pound away via their megacorporations’ megaphones, working people will show up at the polls in 2012 and they will wash out the anti-American extremists who were all hand-picked and financed by the Koch Brothers to destroy everyone who depends on a paycheck in this country. Everyone. That is the “philosophy” of Ayn Rand and those are the marching orders for this crop of Republicans in office today.

For average Americans, Ryan’s “Path” is a road to ruin. The Ryan Republican tea party would make a 65-year-old eligible for Medicare in 10 years pay nearly $6,400 more than people pay today — and force them into the private insurance market, where they probably won’t be able to afford, or even get, coverage. It swells the deficit by trillions and doesn’t achieve a balanced budget for decades. Through his calculated miscalculation and stubborn refusal to recognize that we have a spending and revenue imbalance, Ryan gave Democrats a gift that will keep on giving.

The American system, where “private property” and the unmitigated wealth of corporations has always reigned supreme over such faith-based falsehoods as “We the People,” survived the revolutionary turmoil of the 20th Century only by redistributing just enough wealth to maintain a buffer zone of relative comfort between the billionaires and the seething lower class. The absence of that minimal redistribution becomes most apparent when old people are tossed aside to die in sickness and poverty after working away their lives away. And even a loyal Rush Limbaugh listener is eventually able to comprehend the difference between having Medicare and Social Security and not having a monthly check to survive and a way to see the doctor, because it’s the difference between life and death.

Anyway, that’s the happy view. The alternate view is that the teabaggers would literally shoot themselves in the face with those guns they love so much if they thought it might also hurt the coloreds. [Sun Sentinel]

With the dollar tanking (down to 74 - things are really getting bad and the media isn't reporting it), maybe a little respite from reality?
PMWLMAO @ number 2!

(Stock up on food...NOW! Canned goods, dried meats, grains, bullets!)

Right in the Highlands School District we have a number of these phonies; the people who would buy snake oil or cures for cancer from the wealthy propagandists on Fox.
However, they ARE beyond pity. These are the kinds of people who are bringing down this country by voting with their imagined wallets rather than what ever passes for brains.
Maybe we could sell them some magic beans?

Courtesy of The Mills River Progressive

Top 6 things Republicans consider more important than job creation

From Raw Story:
WASHINGTON – Republicans won dramatic victories last November by promising to mitigate high unemployment. "This coming election is about one issue: jobs," soon to-be Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said weeks before election day. "It's about jobs that were promised to the American people by the current administration, and were never delivered."

But in the three months since taking over the House and expanding their voices in the Senate, Republicans have yet to pass a jobs-focused bill, instead prioritizing numerous social and cultural issues that are unrelated to job creation -- and have little or no chance of becoming policy.

Here are six such legislative goals they've been hard at work on:

1) Curtailing Abortion Rights
2) Defunding Planned Parenthood
3) Defunding NPR
4) Investigating American Muslims
5) Declaring English As America's Official Language
6) Reaffirming The "In God We Trust" Motto

Check out the details at Raw Story.

Are you kidding me?! Millions of Americans are losing their homes, kids' programs are being slashed, millions are unemployed, and this is the shit they're wasting our time and money on?!!
And I love how the righties are always screeching about "big government", and "government interference", yet feel it's entirely appropriate for government to decide what birth control we're allowed to use, what medical procedures we're allowed to have, what plants we're allowed to use, who we're allowed to marry, etc., etc...
These are the people who think that the government should have no authority to regulate industry, or to protect the safety of consumers - but demand that the government monitor what's happening inside a woman's uterus. Incredibly, a number of these folks actually claim to be "libertarians". It would seem that the meaning of the term has changed significantly over the past couple decades!

A little education for the little educated Tea Bigot and Deficit Hawks out there.
The Corporate States of America fired 20 Tomahawk missiles into Libya for whatever reason. Before you start the ridiculous "We're defending freedom" or "We have to fight them over there" bullshit, I know it's difficult for most of you but try to think for a minute.
You are complaining that the Corporate States of America is spending too much money on stupid things like education and food and help for those (Americans only!) who lost jobs, their pensions and life savings because of the two Bush/Cheney illegal wars (Obama inherited them, they're not his so don't cry about how he continues them. If they weren't there in the first place, Obama might have spent that money on something else...like infrastructure, road repair, better schools, etc.) yet not one of you room temperature I.Q.'d geniuses has complained about the cost of these missiles.
It costs $569,000 to fire ONE freaking missile! 20 were fired. Now I know most of you Tea Bigots and Deficit Hawks can't do basic math and that's one of the reasons you're so against better education in schools (you don't want your kids to learn or know more than you) so I'll do it for you.
20 missiles at $569,000 each is $11,380,000! That's just the compliment on one ship! And I'm sure we have more than one! Duh! Can't understand that amount because you lack any kind of basic math rationale? Let me put it to you this way.
NPR , which you anti first amendment asses want to defund because it's too expensive gets $100,000 per year from the government. That means one Tomahawk Missile fired could fund NPR for 5 years!
It also means those 20 just HAVE to be replaced (so we can kill more people who aren't a threat to us - like Iraq) at a higher cost estimate of $15,000,000 (thanks to rising costs of everything but wages).
That $11,000,000 (not counting replacement costs) would fund public food banks in Pennsylvania for 5 years!
That money could repair a lot of potholes and bridges here. It could provide increased police protection, something most of you fools don't realize we'll lose when Tommy Corbett Space Cadet's budget cuts mean local municipalities and school districts will have to cut their budgets to compensate for the lost taxes you already pay to Harrisburg. But you can't think that far ahead. Let's just cut spending, you scream. Fools! Who will pay for your water, subsidize your fuel, your electricity, the fleeing safety of your food? Yep! Let's cut spending and reduce corporate taxes so business can make more money...off of you.
I could go on , but what's the use? Those of you fools couldn't possibly open your minds to anything new until you or your family need help. Then you'll be the first to bitch and complain that the government didn't do anything for you.
Please contact our wonderful representative, Jason Altmire, and send a letter to our Space Cadet Governor thanking them for the cuts to everything we need but bailing out business.
Remember! According to Republican policy, cutting taxes on business means more jobs! And since our government instituted the Bush/Cheney tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 for business, we've created...no jobs! At least in America. But you don't care about that do you? Just that you think you're spending too much of your tax dollars on wasted programs.
So I agree with you. Let's cut everything! No more road repair, no more public anything, no mail delivery, no police or fire protection, no food safety...no nothing for your living standard. Then let's see how long it is before you blame someone else. I know i could hold my breath that long!

You have to wonder where the heads were of the previous school board when they caved on the current teacher’s contract.

I have been harping for years on the fact that the teachers are draining the tax base of this district. Recently, (like this morning) I got an email asking what the hell was going on with this idiotic governor and his band of hoods.

The email went on to question how this POS can cut education funding so much. There was a blurb in the local TP about it. Since I don’t subscribe (pay) to yellow journalism, I checked out the article on their wonderful and unbiased site. For those who may have missed it, here’s a brief summary:

Tommy Corbett, Space Cadet, wants to grade schools on merit!

From the VND:
“"We're not just going to give funding without results," Benefield (research director for the Commonwealth Foundation, a Harrisburg policy group) said, summarizing his interpretation of the governor's message for education.
The cuts to education come with recommendations to eliminate several mandates that limit school districts' ability to cut costs. Several legislators, most of them Republicans, are working on legislation that would end some state requirements, such as bidding for contracts below $25,000 and additional certification for school nurses.

"We want to help our school districts to be as competitive as they can be while keeping the costs under control," said Sen. Mike Folmer, R-Lebanon, vice chair of the education committee and sponsor of a bill that would allow school districts to curb costs by furloughing teachers.

Folmer called this year's budget shortfalls "an opportunity to look at how we've been misspending."

"They've had the time, and they've had the money, but how have they done?" Folmer said. "I think, in a sense, we've created an education industrial complex. I'm not going to say it's become only about the people who work in it, but it should be about the children."

Folmer and other supporters of Corbett's proposal stop short of criticizing teachers unions, which are under fire from Republican administrations in Wisconsin and other states. Though Corbett's budget seeks concessions from teachers, such as a one-year pay freeze, it would not change the nature of unions' collective bargaining agreements with school districts.

However, it’s ok to give taxpayer funds to businesses that have consistently shown no interest in creating Pennsylvania jobs. Our Space Cadet has also taken money from the tobacco settlement, which has gone to help education, and is going to redistribute it (sound vaguely familiar all you tea bigots?) to businesses so “they will have an incentive to create jobs.” [Probably more low paying, no benefit jobs.]

And while Tommy Boy wants you to dig deep into your wallets and sacrifice to pay down this debt, while he gives even more tax breaks to businesses, he has magnanimously decided not to tax the (mostly out of state) Marcellus Drillers. That money alone could replace what this Ass-or-not from Mars or Shaler or wherever is making us pay. Guess what? We wouldn't have to have any tax increase! Make sense? Yep! To you and me it does. But not to Tommy's business buddies, the ones who gave him millions of dollars to buy the governorship! Oh, and it seems Tommy didn't cut a penny from his staff, their salaries, benefits or retirement packages. Guess they're more important than you and me...and more privileged

Which brings me to the main point that since the Space Cadet is fulfilling his promise not to raise taxes guess who will have to raise taxes to pay for the taxes Tommy doesn’t raise? Yep. The people of the state. But I’ve already heard from the terrible uneducated Right Wing that at least he’s keeping his promises.

I guess that means it’s ok if our current overall state taxes don’t go up but it’s sure ok if the locals fatten theirs to make up for Tommy Boy's promises.
As for our district, there are a couple of choices:

Layoff and/or fire teachers (The Space Cadet never said anything about cutting the wages or benefits of those in management positions, like superintendents, etc. Kewel!)

Get rid of the unions (They claim they won’t do this but if you believe that you are stupider than I’ve ever imagined)

Increase the local taxes to make up the lost revenue.

If you “listen between the lines” those are the only solutions you’ll hear. BUT…there is another, as Yoda once said. The residents of this district and most other districts are paying the salaries of the teachers. The average salary is around $55,000 and the shills for the teachers, the union reps, claim they are worth it. I don’t doubt they are worth the $55,000. What I doubt is they are worth us paying for their benefits.

In case you have had your head in the sand for the last 5 years, the average health care benefit of a Highlands teacher is over $1200 per month or an extra $14,400 in their(not your) pockets. 220 teachers times $14,400 equals $3,168,000 PER YEAR or just about what Tommy wants to cut from the local district budget.

Now I’m not the math wiz like my colleague on this blog but doesn’t it make sense to make the teachers pay their fair share? Because if they don’t, we’re talking about a huge, and I mean a really huge property tax increase.

Fair is fair. It’s about time the residents woke up and realized the gravy train for the teachers has to end.

Oh and by the way, there’s an interesting article in the TP about the wonderful extra benefits teachers get that most of us didn’t or don’t know. Click here to read it. After reading this I contacted a former board member, who happens to edit this blog, and he confirmed the facts. Teachers who show up for work for 15 years get an automatic “bump” in their salary provided they earn a Masters Degree (usually paid for by the residents, believe it or not!) approaching 80% of their current pay! Yep! A teacher making $40,000 with a Masters Degree in their 14th year (although that amount is so unlikely because they would be making MUCH more than that!) can look forward to a possible $30,000 plus pay increase. And those making $55,000 could go to $100,000. And don't forget what this does to their retirement benefits...that we end up paying for! But they claim they deserve their health care benefits paid by us.

So now this poor soul who was only making 40k per year (with us paying 14k of their benefits), now is making $70,000 for doing no additional work! Nice gig for them. Screwing for us. But the union reps say the teachers deserve it.

Remember all this when Highlands raises your property taxes through the roof.

Remember this when you hear a Tea Bagger or any Republican tell you that liberals are bad because they want to raise taxes.

Remember this when someone tells you we need to cut the budget problem those in Harrisburg (Republican controlled for the last thousand years and who wanted to cut the budget last year by 1 billion when Rendell said no) blame on you.

Remember this when you go to vote; those of you who know how to vote; those of you who care to vote; and those of you who try to learn about issues before you vote rather than listening to partisan hacks like the local newspaper, anyone of the Right or even a number of traitorous Democrats (much like our own Jason Altmire).

You have questions? Contact us here. You’ll get answers. You may not like them but you’ll get facts not bullshit.

Before you end up with more health problems, learn a new thing that the so-called Marcellus Shale Drilling is causing. When you're finished, see if you still believe that drilling for this fuel is worth your drinking water.
And even if you do, the increased cost of what will be necessary to purify your water will offset any imagined saving in the cost of natural gas.
By the way, those "jobs" the drillers keep saying Marcellus Shale will create...75% of the workers are form out of state, namely Texas and Ohio. And they don't pay any taxes to Pa. And the drilling companies will NOT pay any tax to Pennsylvania while funding is cut fr education. Make sense?

This is a long read from the Post Gazette. I don't imagine you'll ever see anything like it in the Valley News Dispatch.
One last thing. Newly elected governor, the man you all put in office instead of Onorato, has removed State Control of the discharge of Marcellus Fracking Water into the Rivers and Streams of Pennsylvania and appointed a man who is a known anti environmentalist and has contributed hundreds of thousand of dollars to Corbett since 2004. Coincidence


******************


Bromide: A concern in drilling wastewater
Sunday, March 13, 2011
By Don Hopey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11072/1131660-113.stm#ixzz1GUuq3e9O


Ballooning bromide concentrations in the region's rivers, occurring as Marcellus Shale wastewater discharges increase, is a much bigger worry than the risk of high radiation levels, public water suppliers say.
Unlike radiation, which so far has shown up at scary levels only in Marcellus Shale hydraulic fracturing wastewater sampling done at wellheads, the spike in salty bromides in Western Pennsylvania's rivers and creeks has already put some public water suppliers into violation of federal safe drinking water standards.
Others, like the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority, haven't exceeded those limits but have been pushed up against them. Some have had to change the way they treat water.
Bromide is a salty substance commonly found in seawater. It was once used in sedatives and headache remedies like Bromo-Seltzer until it was withdrawn because of concerns about toxicity. When it shows up at elevated levels in freshwater, it is due to human activities. The problem isn't so much the bromide in the river but what happens when that river water is treated to become drinking water.
Bromide facilitates formation of brominated trihalomethanes, also known as THMs, when it is exposed to disinfectant processes in water treatment plants. THMs are volatile organic liquid compounds.
Studies show a link between ingestion of and exposure to THMs and several types of cancer and birth defects.
"Our biggest concerns are about bromide, which has become a problem over the last six months or so," said Stanley States, water quality manager with the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority, which draws water from the Allegheny River for its 400,000 customers. "Trihalomethanes are strictly regulated because of the health risks. We've seen levels that are threatening the standards."
The federal safe drinking water standard for THMs is 80 micrograms per cubic liter, and removing them from finished drinking water is difficult. Keeping bromide levels in raw water sources low is a much easier way to address the problem.
Mr. States said the elevated bromide levels in the river could be coming from municipal sewage treatment plants and brine treatment plants handling Marcellus Shale drilling and hydrofracking wastewater or from discharges by coal-fired power plants water discharges. He said four municipal sewage facilities and four brine treatment plants are handling and discharging Marcellus Shale wastewater upriver from Pittsburgh's drinking water intake pipe in Aspinwall.
"Something's changed and it could possibly be related to the treating of Marcellus Shale drilling wastewater," Mr. States said. "There will be a lot more Marcellus Shale wells operating in the region before there are a whole lot less and our concern is in providing safe drinking water. We're not anti-Marcellus Shale. We're anti-bromide."
Problem through the region
Pittsburgh is not alone. The Wilkinsburg-Penn Joint Water Authority issued a notice to its customers in January informing them of the bromide problem and said it was necessary to change its water treatment methods to stay in compliance with state and federal drinking water standards.
"Due to the sudden increase in bromide concentration in the Allegheny River, all water suppliers are beginning to have a problem controlling this trihalomethane formation," the authority wrote on its Web page. "All water purveyors on the Allegheny River System are working together to try and find out the source of the elevated bromide levels."
Mr. States said a study is under way on the Allegheny River and its tributaries to identify sources of bromide in the river.
The Department of Environmental Protection is participating in that river sampling study and another in the Monongahela River watershed.
Katy Gresh, a DEP spokeswoman, said the department plans to order the industrial brine plants, sewage treatment facilities and coal-powered power plants on the rivers to conduct sampling at their discharge pipes.
"We will get and review those results," Ms. Gresh said. "If we can control the largest contributors, that will help solve the problem."
Jeanne VanBriesen, a Carnegie Mellon University professor of civil and environmental engineering, said testing there showed an unusual spike in bromide levels in July and August. Although they've tapered a bit since then, they remain higher than normal, said Ms. VanBriesen, who has been studying water quality in the Monongahela River since fall 2009.
She said the two biggest sources of bromide in the watershed are Marcellus wastewater from sewage treatment facilities and wastewater from new smokestack scrubbers at coal-fired power plants. The plants cannot remove the bromide in wastewater.
Bromide levels vary in discharges from both sources, but bromide is generally found at higher concentrations in Marcellus wastewater.
"It's difficult to make a definitive statement about where it's all coming from, but we do know it's going into our drinking water treatment plants and affecting the treatment of our water," Ms. VanBriesen said. "The most logical way to fix that is to reduce the amount of bromide in the rivers and creeks."
Millions of gallons
Marcellus Shale drilling and hydraulic fracturing operations use an average of 4 million gallons of water to drill and "frack" each well. The drilling industry says it recycles approximately 70 percent of the wastewater from its well fracking operations, but millions of gallons are still funneled through 11 sewage treatment facilities and five brine treatment plants, then discharged into the state's rivers and streams.
Together, the eight facilities on the Allegheny and its tributaries are allowed to discharge an average of 1.5 million gallons of Marcellus drilling wastewater and hydraulic fracturing fluid a day, according to state Department of Environmental Protection records. Marcellus discharges from three treatment facilities on the Monongahela River total 185,000 gallons a day. Another 650,000 gallons a day flow into the Ohio and its tributaries.
Drilling companies and the Marcellus Shale Coalition, an advocacy and lobbying organization representing most of the companies doing shale gas drilling in Pennsylvania, said the industry isn't to blame for higher bromide levels.
"When you look at the amount of Marcellus Shale wastewater that is being discharged it's low" compared to the river flows, said Matt Pitzarella, a spokesman for Range Resources. "So those [bromide] increases are not an impact of Marcellus Shale." Range Resources recycled 90 percent of its wastewater last year and has set a goal of 100 percent for 2011.
"We certainly see this as a non-Marcellus issue," said Steve Forde, a shale coalition spokesman, who cited a 2010 U.S. Geological Survey study that noted higher bromide levels nationwide, especially in urban areas. "Road salt use has been identified as one of the culprits for that."
Ms. VanBriesen said that's not likely because road salt contains more chloride and little bromide, and her water testing didn't find a corresponding spike in chloride levels. Plus the bromide spike in the rivers first occurred in the summer.
"So to implicate road salt, well, I wouldn't buy that," she said. "The bromide spike happened in July and August when you wouldn't be applying road salt. So that wasn't a factor."
Changing treatment process
Whatever the origin of the bromide spike, Jerry Schulte, manager of source water protection for the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission, said bromide is "absolutely an issue" for water treatment plants.
"We've identified bromide as a compound of concern," Mr. Schulte said, adding that ORSANCO's triennial review of pollution control standards in April will focus on developing a new, first-time standard for bromide in the watershed.
Discharges of bromides and bromide levels in rivers or streams are not now regulated by ORSANCO or by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The Josephine brine treatment facility, also known as Franklin Brine, on Blacklick Creek in the Allegheny's watershed, discharges an average of 120,000 gallons a day of Marcellus wastewater that, at peak levels, contains high concentrations of bromide, chlorides and total dissolved solids, according to sampling done by the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Healthy Environments and Communities.
"There's pretty high bromide going into the creek. Certainly it is a public health threat," said Conrad Dan Volz, director of the Center for Healthy Environments and Communities. "And to remove brominated THMs, that's going to break the bank for public water systems."
Water treatment plants can get around the bromide problem by changing their treatment methods -- substituting chloramines for the chlorides they normally use in the disinfection process. That's what the Wilkinsburg-Penn water authority did.
The chloramines produce different, less toxic, treatment byproducts, but those can produce other problems, including causing lead and copper to leach out of old water pipelines and into drinking water as happened in Washington, D.C., when it made such a switch in 2000.
Ms. VanBriesen said water utilities making such a change can add phosphate to their finished water to prevent lead from leaching out of the pipes.
Another way to avoid THMs, she said, is to change the way water utilities mix, aerate and store their finished water, and a number of suppliers are considering that.
One water treatment facility that has had problems with keeping THM concentrations in finished water below the 80 parts per billion federal standard is Beaver Falls, in Beaver County, which was required to notify its 50,000 customers in 22 municipalities of the problem for the first three quarters of 2010.
The authority changed its treatment methods, from chlorine to chloramines, which don't form THMs, at a cost of approximately $15,000 last year. That allowed the water supplier to meet the standard for the last three months of the year, said Jim Riggio, general manager of the water system.
Although testing done by the state DEP hasn't been able to pinpoint a cause of the higher bromide levels in the Beaver River, Mr. Riggio said they coincided with upriver discharges of treated Marcellus Shale fracking wastewater.
"We went from non-detectable levels of bromide to increased levels a couple of years ago," Mr. Riggio said. "When I see the whole frack water thing taking off and the same time we start to have problems, well, until you can tell me different, that's what I assume it is. And it seems like a lot of the water suppliers on the Beaver and Mon rivers had similar problems to what we did."



Bruce F

The next time you read some bullshit opinion (by the editors or letter writers) in the Valley News Dispatch or especially from our turncoat Representative, Jason "vote for big oil subsidies" Altmire and other idiot(s) who claim that we need to cut Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid and the deficit and spending or that "WE" have to sacrifice to pay for the excesses of the Bush Administration, show or send them this.
Ask his honor, Jason, how he can defend this.


Click the image to enlarge to really piss you off.

from kos

John Boehner calls for cuts to Social Security, Medicare

by Jed Lewison

We really have to focus in on that two-thirds of the budget that’s really driving the deficit and the debt to the levels that we see. I’ve said for months that it’s time to have an adult conversation with the American people about the big challenges that face us. When you look at Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, these are important programs for tens of millions of Americans. But they’re not sustainable at current levels. They’re not affordable for our kids and grandkids. We’re going to have to make some changes. But I think the first step is laying out the size of the problem, and here in the coming weeks, I expect you’ll see more and more from our team laying out just how big this problem is.

If Boehner really wanted to have an adult conversation, he'd acknowledge that Social Security is in solid shape, and that simply raising the payroll tax cap would secure it's solvency for the forseeable future. And Boehner would also admit that it was President Obama and the Democrats who took the first step towards reducing Medicare costs through the passage of health care reform. Yet instead of working with Democrats, Boehner and his gang attacked them for reducing the cost of Medicare. Even though those cost reductions will not reduce the quality of care, Boehner and the GOP claimed they had reduce benefits.

But now here he is, barely three months after the election, telling the public that the Republican Party thinks now is the time to cut not just Medicare, but also Medicaid and Social Security. Who knows, maybe he wants to return to being minority leader, because falsely claiming that we need to cut Social Security to balance the budget is exactly the kind of thing that should cost him the Speakership and Republicans the majority.

from kos

The great Lightbulb War goes on, funded by energy companies

by Joan McCarter

So you thought the that the House Republicans' obsession with incandescent lightbulbs had something to do with their love of the 19th century. Nostalgia for the days of Dredd Scott, child labor, no collective bargaining, few effective means for women to control their own destinies, and when coal was king.

While it's true that they do seem to have an unnatural attachment to those things, it does seem to come down to that coal being king bit. What's really behind the Republicans' war to keep America from saving money on energy by using more efficient lightbulbs is that the saved money would be going in the wrong pockets.

The real answer as to why the bill’s sponsors are itching to extend the shelf life of incandescent bulbs may not be so ideological. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that in one year, replacing just one 60-watt incandescent bulb with an equivalent CFL results in $7 in energy savings (Microsoft Excel file). Other Department of Energy figures (PDF) state that the average U.S. household has 45 light bulbs across 30 separate fixtures and that there are 116,900,000 households in the country. This means there are 5.26 billion light bulbs across the United States. At present, CFLs hover at a market share just under 30 percent. If that were to go up to 100 percent as a result of the EISA mandate, power companies would stand to lose almost $26 billion in revenue every single year.

Manufacturers like GE have little to lose by introducing and advocating CFLs, because they’re almost six times more expensive than traditional incandescents on average, meaning that over the long term, the decreased frequency with which consumers would have to buy them would be offset by the higher price — and in the short term, such companies would get a massive burst in revenue from Americans switching over. But the energy industry has billions to lose in the conversion — and it’s appealing to its friends in Congress to try to keep that from happening. [emphasis mine]

Yep, that's the good ol' GOP. Always looking out for the little guy who just loves the warm glow of his incandescent bulb.

Those were the days, my friend...the 50s.

Click each column to enlarge.

Then next time you hear a Tea Bigot or Republican or Media Newsreader claim that both sides (right and left) are equally responsible for the domestic terror committed so-called deranged people, tell them about these incidents, ask them to show you similar incidents performed by liberals then tell them to go to hell.

Since all those isolated incidents involving terroristic violence directed at "liberals" and the "government" keep adding up into a serious trend, we've decided it's time to start keeping systematic track of the problem -- especially because mainstream media seem intent on refusing to recognize the trend.

Here's the text.

-- July 2008: A gunman named Jim David Adkisson, agitated at how "liberals" are "destroying America," walks into a Unitarian Church and opens fire, killing two churchgoers and wounding four others.

-- October 2008: Two neo-Nazis are arrested in Tennessee in a plot to murder dozens of African-Americans, culminating in the assassination of President Obama.

-- December 2008: A pair of "Patriot" movement radicals -- the father-son team of Bruce and Joshua Turnidge, who wanted "to attack the political infrastructure" -- threaten a bank in Woodburn, Oregon, with a bomb in the hopes of extorting money that would end their financial difficulties, for which they blamed the government. Instead, the bomb goes off and kills two police officers. The men eventually are convicted and sentenced to death for the crime.

-- December 2008: In Belfast, Maine, police discover the makings of a nuclear "dirty bomb" in the basement of a white supremacist shot dead by his wife. The man, who was independently wealthy, reportedly was agitated about the election of President Obama and was crafting a plan to set off the bomb.

-- January 2009: A white supremacist named Keith Luke embarks on a killing rampage in Brockton, Mass., raping and wounding a black woman and killing her sister, then killing a homeless man before being captured by police as he is en route to a Jewish community center.

-- February 2009: A Marine named Kody Brittingham is arrested and charged with plotting to assassinate President Obama. Brittingham also collected white-supremacist material.

-- April 2009: A white supremacist named Richard Poplawski opens fire on three Pittsburgh police officers who come to his house on a domestic-violence call and kills all three, because he believed President Obama intended to take away the guns of white citizens like himself. Poplawski is currently awaiting trial.

-- April 2009: Another gunman in Okaloosa County, Florida, similarly fearful of Obama's purported gun-grabbing plans, kills two deputies when they come to arrest him in a domestic-violence matter, then is killed himself in a shootout with police.

-- May 2009: A "sovereign citizen" named Scott Roeder walks into a church in Wichita, Kansas, and assassinates abortion provider Dr. George Tiller.

-- June 2009: A Holocaust denier and right-wing tax protester named James Von Brunn opens fire at the Holocaust Museum, killing a security guard.

-- February 2010: An angry tax protester named Joseph Ray Stack flies an airplane into the building housing IRS offices in Austin, Texas. (Media are reluctant to label this one "domestic terrorism" too.)

-- March 2010: Seven militiamen from the Hutaree Militia in Michigan and Ohio are arrested and charged with plotting to assassinate local police officers with the intent of sparking a new civil war.

-- March 2010: An anti-government extremist named John Patrick Bedell walks into the Pentagon and opens fire, wounding two officers before he is himself shot dead.

-- May 2010: A "sovereign citizen" from Georgia is arrested in Tennessee and charged with plotting the violent takeover of a local county courthouse.

-- May 2010: A still-unidentified white man walks into a Jacksonville, Fla., mosque and sets it afire, simultaneously setting off a pipe bomb.

-- May 2010: Two "sovereign citizens" named Jerry and Joe Kane gun down two police officers who pull them over for a traffic violation, and then wound two more officers in a shootout in which both of them are eventually killed.

-- July 2010: An agitated right-winger and convict named Byron Williams loads up on weapons and drives to the Bay Area intent on attacking the offices of the Tides Foundation and the ACLU, but is intercepted by state patrolmen and engages them in a shootout and armed standoff in which two officers and Williams are wounded.

-- September 2010: A Concord, N.C., man is arrested and charged with plotting to blow up a North Carolina abortion clinic. The man, 26-year--old Justin Carl Moose, referred to himself as the "Christian counterpart to (Osama) bin Laden” in a taped undercover meeting with a federal informant.

-- January 2011: A 22-year-old gunman named Jared Lee Loughner with a long grudge against Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and a paranoid hatred of the government walks into a public Giffords event and shoots her in the head, then keeps firing, killing six people and wounding 14 more. Gifford miraculously survives.

-- January 2011: A backpack bomb with the potential of killing or injuring dozens of people is found along the route of a Martin Luther King Day “unity march” in downtown Spokane.

We'll update as the incidents occur. Also, readers should feel free to contribute potential additions. Remember, these incidents involve more than simple threats or assaults but rather constitute incidents of actual domestic terrorism.