What's right is right

Mutha is all down for getting your hustle on. If you can make it across the border and take a job that no one else seems to want then so be it. But do so knowing that you are breaking the law and if you get caught, take your punishment like a man or woman.

Here in DC, some former Chipotle employees are up in arms because they were taken into a break room during lunch and replaced, allegedly for immigration violations, i.e., not being in the country legally. Predictably, tree-hugging hippies are mounting an online protest demanding that Chipotle "apologize, change its mass firing practices, and pay employees what they are owed. In short: demand Chipotle treat workers with integrity!" (their angry intensity, not mine)

Slow down!

Now, let's be real. The fucked up part of what Chipotle did was not give the workers a chance to prove their innocence in the form of papers proving they were here legally. That's a matter for the courts to determine. Let's assume that all the workers WERE here legally. In that case, they should have had no problem proving such. Even if they were in the middle of some sort of "process" of legalization, papers showing they are in the middle of such a "process" should be sufficient enough to delay action.

If they weren't, then Chipotle had every right to do what they did, which, in the words of the online protesters, was tossed them "out in the cold. They received no warning and no respect. They huddled together to comfort each other, thinking of how they would feed their families and pay the rent." In other words, they were summarily fired for submitting false immigration status on their employment applications and they got what they deserved. They were here illegally and they got caught.

Side note, other than getting Betty White to appear on SNL, when have these online petitions ever worked?

PS, RIP Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor Hilton Wilding Todd Fisher Burton Burton Warner Fortensky!

Racist?

This ad went up about a half-mile from a Planned Parenthood facility on Bleecker Street, o the corner of Watts and 6th Avenue in NYC.

NYC City Council Member Letitia James says, "It is misguided to use Black History Month as a tool to promote this message. Every woman has the right to make personal choices in regards to her body, and I respect many different points of view, but to compare abortion to terrorism and genocide is highly offensive."

The billboard is sponsored by a group called Life Always. Their press release states, " There is a battle being waged in the United States that has taken more lives than any foreign war or act of terrorism. The enemy is abortion." Life Always board member Pastor Stephen Broden added, "During Black History Month, we celebrate our history, but our future is in jeopardy as a genocidal plot is carried out through abortion."

In response to the ad, a group called Trust Black Women posted this on Facebook: "Yesterday, racist billboards went up in Soho attacking black women and our human rights by claiming “the most dangerous place for an African American child is in the womb.” SisterSong, a coalition of 80 women of color and Indigenous women’s organizations, denounces this cynical attempt to use race during Black History Month as an excuse to assault women’s rights. Black women are not the pawns of these white people who erect such billboards. We find them offensive, racist, sexist and – most of all – disrespectful of our decision making, our 400-year history of raising and caring for black children, and our human right to make health care choices for ourselves."

Statistics from the NYC Health Department show that Blacks had the highest number of abortions in 2009, with 40,798. (Hispanics had the second highest at 28,364.) NYC's abortion rate was almost 40% that year, and the three Planned Parenthood facilities nearest the billboard reported nearly 17,000 abortions in 2010.

So...

I ask again, is the ad racist?

Well, it's definitely provocative, but racist? Not to me, but then again, I am one of those black people who don't see racism in every situation. To me, this ad shows the inflamed rhetoric on both sides that makes it nearly impossible to reach common ground.

Is any conversation on abortion about anything other than free and unfettered access an assault on women's rights? The author from SisterSong assumes the billboard's sponsors are white, when actually two are black. Is anything that paints black people or other minorities in a negative light racist, even if it is true?

On the flip side, do you know the agony that some women go through in making the decision to terminate the pregnancy? Do you have a plan to support those babies who come into the world either unwanted, or whose families cannot support them? Do you have any answers to abortion other than abstinence?

Lastly.

Black people, yes slavery was awful. I read the journals about the biggest bucks being forced to breed in order to insure a strong "crop" of new slaves. I read about women who were raped by their masters and then had their bellies cut open to kill the bastard child. I know we have a history of Jim Crow oppression and racisim and that serious inequities and worse still exist in this country,

BUT,

at what point are we, as a people responsible for our own choices. When is it no longer directly or indirectly, the fault of The Man?

The wise and wonderful Miss Coco Peru once said something to the effect that men who complain the loudest about men who suck dick, suck dick. So it shouldn't really come as a shock that at least 3 men have accused Pastor Eddie Long of sexual abuse. Long, whose history of anti-gay rhetoric is so virulent that some veteran civil rights figures refused to attend Coretta Scott King's funeral when it was held at his mega-church in suburban Atlanta.

In the interest of fairness, let's look at both sides of the case. First off, the plaintiff's all brough civil suits, not criminal suits, which says to me that they don't have that kind of compelling evidence, such as a rape kit, or other physical evidence (think Monica Lewinsky and soiled dresses). So since they brought civil suit, they are seeking financial compensation for the real or imagined wrongs they suffered. Wrongs such as having an old brotha take you on lavish trips around the world, buy you a car and all other maneer of excess, all in exchange for the pleasure of sucking your dick. The horrror!

On the other side, we have Pastor Long (I can't with the "Bishop") who, if the allegations are true, spent the day railing against the sins of homosexuality, but always had at least one kept boy on the side for sexual pleasure. And while we certainly don't have an cum-stained dresses, we have these instead:

These pictures were supposedly emailed or texted to one or more of the plaintiffs. While it's not exactly a dick shot,

at a minimum its inappropriate. Can you imagine your phone buzzing and you open your phone to a picture of your pastor in his tightest, gayest muscle shirt?

I will be interested in seeing how this plays out, because I GUARANTEE YOU that although there are 3 plaintiffs now, there are several others in the wings. If Pastor Long settles out of court, his church and many others, including me, will see it as an admission of guilt. If he goes to trial and declares his innocence under oath, those others will come out of the woodwork, including those tragic queens he almost certainly deluded into thinking they were the only one he had a spiritual relationship with.

More to come...

Apologies

Yesterday, the world paused. Not to hear the President make an announcement, or because of some local or national emergency. No, the world paused to listen to Tiger Woods apologize for his affairs with every cocktail waitress in the United States. Thing is, while Tiger Woods certainly owes an apology to his wife and children, and maybe his mother, he doesn't owe me or anyone to whom he is not related or whom he has not fucked, an apology.

First, apologies, especially those made in these big public forums are typically self-serving. Chris Brown only apologized when those pictures of Rihanna's beat-up face were plastered all over. He only apologized because it looked like his career was in the tank.

Second, unless you show REAL emotion, it only makes matters worse. Remember when Jimmy Swaggert got caught with that prostitute. His "I Have Sinned" speech, regardless of how you felt about the man, his ministries, or his motives, was certainly heartfelt and sincere. Contrast once again to Chris Brown (sorry to keep beating up on him, pun intended), whose deadpan apology was most notable for his fashion choice and not his words. The bowtie was not a good look.

Lastly, I, and most of you were hurt by Tiger's actions. Tiger didn't fuck or fuck over any of us. The only reason for this whole episode is that in this celebrity-based culture, people take personal ownership and develop a familiarity and intimacy based on nothing more substantial than seeing that person on a screen.

--- PRESS PAUSE ---

Why the hell did Tiger get married. Its not like he is some 60-year-old dude, who fucked all these women over the course of a lifetime. He hooked up with all these chicks in the last 7 years, while he was meeting, courting, marrying and having children with his wife. I am not judging his sexual appetites, but his judgement in getting married. If you want to fuck around, stay single and fuck every bitch in creation. It's just stupid to get married and keep fucking at the Olympic level like Tiger did. Someone is going to turn up pregnant or blab to the media or both.

--- PRESS PLAY ---

Now who DOES owe us an apology? John Edwards! Can you imagine the mess we would be in was found to be the father of an out-of-wedlock child that he fathered while his wife, now the First Lady, was battling breast cancer. We would be FUCKED! He owes an apology to those who believed in him, who worked for and with him and fell for his okie doke! Bastard!

As they might say over at DListed.com, this made my no-no hole say yes-yes!!

Lastly I also suspect I feel a little vulnerable because this is ground I have never certainly never covered before - so if you have pearls of wisdom on how we figure all this out please let me know... In the meantime please sleep soundly knowing that despite the best efforts of my head my heart cries out for you, your voice, your body, the touch of your lips, the touch of your finger tips and an even deeper connection to your soul.

These are the words of the formerly AWOL Governor Stanford of South Carolina to his mistress, an Argentinian woman called "Maria." He claims he spent the last five days "crying in Argentina" with "my dear, dear friend." Time for the side-eye...

If by "crying" he meant "fucking" and if by "dear, dear friend" he meant "my good, good pussy," then yes, I would agree.

This is the same guy who as Congressman Stanford voted for President Clinton's impeachment, citing the need for "moral legitimacy." Loosk like it's not as easy to pass judgement when it's YOUR dick getting sucked.

Hypocritcal much?

At What Price Freedom?

from washingtonpost.com:

During his first days in detention, senior al-Qaeda operative Khalid Sheik Mohammed was stripped of his clothes, beaten, given a forced enema and shackled with his arms chained above his head, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. It was then, a Red Cross report says, that his American captors told him to prepare for "a hard time."

Over the next 25 days, beginning on March 6, 2003, Mohammed was put through a routine in which he was deprived of sleep, doused with cold water and had his head repeatedly slammed into a plywood wall, according to the report. The interrogation also included days of extensive waterboarding, a technique that simulates drowning.

Sometime during those early weeks, Mohammed started talking, providing information that supporters of harsh interrogations would later cite in defending the practices. Former vice president Richard B. Cheney has justified such interrogations by saying that intelligence gained from Mohammed resulted in the takedown of al-Qaeda plots.

But whether harsh tactics were decisive in Mohammed's interrogation may never be conclusively known, in large part because the CIA appears not to have tried traditional tactics for much time, if at all. According to the agency's own accounting, Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times during his first four weeks in a CIA secret prison.

I assume the forced enema was so he wouldn't shit himself during the times when CIA operatives were repeatedly slamming his head into the wall or holding him under water until he almost drowned.

What did we gain from this treatment? According to the same article, the CIA alledges three specific success from this torture: the identification of alleged "dirty bomber" Jose Padilla; the discovery of a "Second Wave" attack targeting Los Angeles; and the break-up of the Indonesian Jemaah Islamiya cell, an al-Qaeda ally. Other CIA analysts and Obama administration officials dispute these successes, but assuming everything adds up, at what cost was this information obtained.

Well, we certainly can't say that the United States never tortured anyone in its care. Every statement by Bush and Cheney to the contrary is now shown to be a bold-faced lie. Now only did we torture this man, but we engaged in a systematic course of torture of detainees while failing to utilize any established methods of interrogation beyond saying, "Tell me what you know."

On some level, I have to be thankful that that the Dirty Bomb plot was uncovered. That plot involved detonating an explosive in downtown DC that would spread radiation, in addition to any immediate damage done by the blast. If the plot had been successful, I could be dead right now, or dying of radiation-induced cancer. I would rather that information have been obtained by more traditional techniques though.

I worry that this will put our soldiers and other operatives further in harm's way. After all, Al Qaeda operatives cut off people's heads in response to a cartoon depicting a Muslim religious figure. What will they do in retaliation for forced enemas, water-boarding and inflicted head trauma?

I do not envy President Obama's position. On the one hand, if he declines to prosecute those involves, it sends the signal to the world that the US condones these techniques, even while publicly disavowing them. If he seeks prosecution of those involved, including the former President and Vice-President, he risks fracturing the country in ways that might not heal for years or even decades.

The best way to avoid this predicament in the future is to ban these techniques entirely.

Madness!!!

"If you own guns in this country,

If you drink beer in this country,

If you go to tittie bars in this country,

then you're a bad person."

...The words of a self-professed redneck, who by his own admission, is not ready for a black president because he is "from the old school." 

The quote is taken from Right America: Feeling Wronged, a documentary by Alexandra Pelosi, the daughter of Nancy Pelosi.

We got alot of work to do

Racist, Insensitive or Both?

Looks like we will be playing this game for at least the next 4 years. The NY Post published this pictures recently and people are up in arms, including the Reverend Al Sharpton, who called the cartoon "troubling at best given the historic racist attacks of African-Americans as being synonymous with monkeys."

I have to admit, I am sometimes blind to racism, inasmuch as i don't look for it around every corner and behind every action. Until Rev. Al mentioned it, I just saw this cartoon as a play on the old saying about if you get enough monkeys in a room with tipewriters, one of them will write Shakespeare. I saw the cartoon as a comment on the monkeys in Congress, not as a reference to Obama.

I have said it before and I will say it again,we are going to have to start letting shit go, black people. We cannot continue to see the world only through the prism of our own real and imagined pain. I don't want to live in a world where everyone is on such eggshells about offending someone that public discourse dies.

Rev. Al, foul ball (ooo, look at me with the sports reference. How butch!)

That said, I am more offended by the use of the monkey as a joke. It is not AT ALL funny what happened to that woman when that chimp jumped on her. That animal belonged in a zoo and his owner should be facing some serious charges. She keeps referring to the chimp as her son and herself as its Mom. I always find people who anthropo-morphize their pets to be a little wierd and this takes the cake.

NY Post, that's a strike for extremely poor taste.

Aretha's Backup Singer

I was there...

600am: The alarm on my cellphone goes off, just as Joe calls to drop off his tux for tonight's festivities. I question myself: Why the hell am I about to go stand out in sub-freezing weather for several hours? I could watch that shit on my brand new 47-inch LCD (LuCinDa the Younger) and be happy. Plus it's not like I was going to get anywhere close. I would most likely end up watching the whole thing on a jumbotron, which was in effect a giant TV. But I promised Joe and Paul I would go so I got out of bed.

700am: We leave the house and decide we might as well walk to the Mall. Joe informs us that the buses are running every 10 minutes so we walk to the Metro and catch the bus. We go about 7 blocks and then have to get out because traffic is at a standstill. We join the sea of humanity and walk slowly toward the Mall.

805am: Despite warnings about long lines for security and what not to bring, we walk right onto the Mall and manuever our way toward the closest jumbotron. We claim a spot by peeing on the perimeter and begin the long wait.

810am: Now, you know I don't really care for people, but I decided I would put my best face forward and go with the flow today. Luckily there was room to breather where we were.  My happy mood is spoiled by this woman from NYC who starts going on and on about how she prayed in this moment and God put on her heart to be here and something about  being "slain in the spirit." It all sounded like crazy talk to me so I was only half listening. She gave me a flyer and told me to come to her church next time I was in NYC. I wanted to tell her thtat I was too busy fuckin' and drinkin' whenever I was in Manhattan to go to church, but then I remembered my promise to be nice so I smiled a her and pocketed the flyer. Her name was Dr. Jacquelyn Sawyer

845am: We met a lovely family from Minnesota who came for the Inauguration and we became fast friends

930am: Bye Bye Miss American Pie!

1045am: Feed me Seymore!

What the hell was she thinking with that hat? Plus her voice sounded terrible.

1100am: The ceremony begins with introductions of various congressmen and senators and other dignitaries. Then they introduced the living former Presidents. The Carters were dignified and courtly as always. Does Rosalind Carter ever age? Happy, enthusiastic applause. I think she is the Evil Un-Dead. When did Bush Senior become a doddering old man? Remember when we thought this man was the worst thing this country had ever seen? Little did we know. Polite applause for the elderly. Oh! My! Gawd! Its THE CLINTONS!!!!!!! THUNDEROUS APPLAUSE! PS, I love the fact that Hillary now has to work for the man she campaigned so ferociousl against less than a year ago.

1115am: Everyone starts singing Darth Vader's theme when Dick Cheney is introduced.

1120am: A chorus of boos hails the introduction of Dubya.

1145: The Vice President is sworn in

1155: Some musical interlude with Yoyoma. They need to hurry this shit up, it's cold as hell out here. Wait a minute, that clarinet player is cute!

1210pm: We have a new President!!!!!

A New Paradigm

Listen up! We have a Black president now, and while that doesn't mean that racism is dead, it DOES mean that we can stop assuming racism as a motivating factor for every action. We should definitely be prepared to confront it when it rears its ugly head, but it's not under every rock, around every corner or at the base of every conflict.

In the latest grasp at racist straws, supporters of Roland Burris have intimated that racism motivates those who would deny Mr. Burris the opportunity to be appointed as a U.S. Senator, the only BLACK U.S. Senator, they hasten to point out. Really?

So the problem is that he is Black? Not that he was appointed by someone who is under cloud of indictment for trying to profit from such an appointment? Those who are opposed to Roland Burris are no more racist than those who are opposed to Carolyn Kennedy are sexist.

We, as a people, are really going to have to let go of the past and realize that sometimes, you just don't get what you want in life and that doesn't mean that those who deny you are (necessarily) racist or prejudiced against you because of your race/religion/sex/sexual orientation.

Headlines

They must not have seen James Frey on Oprah. Laurie Friedman's "Angel Girl," based on Herman Rosenblat's tale of meeting his future wife at a concentration camp, had been released in the fall by the Lerner Publishing Group. Rosenblat, 79, whose many admirers had included Oprah Winfrey, acknowledged last weekend that he didn't meet his wife during the war. Get ready to get ripped a new one!

Awwww, I guess we are supposed to feel sorry for him! There's been a recent spate of articles about the outgoing President and how history will judge him. Let's see: caught flat-footed on 9/11, lied about WMDs, Abu Ghrab, Guantanamo, Hurricane Katrina and recession. I wouldn't look for any schools to be renamed in your honor anytime soon.

Just keep that shit over there! Israel is considering suspending its Gaza offensive to give Hamas militants an opening to halt their rocket fire, but the threat of a ground offensive remains if the truce does not hold, an Israeli defense official said Tuesday. Other than Oprah, the only other people that you don't fuck with in this world are the Israelis, although I still question why we should always have such unflinching support for them. That, however, is a topic for another post.

How Does it Feel? A Journey

Before we get started, i just want to recommend that whatever system they use to vote in Washington State, Oregon and California needs to be adopted nationally. The polls closed at 11pm est and they were able to project the results at 11:02pm. Anysnooch...

All around me, I see people who see the election of Barack Obama as a transformative event in their lives and the life of the country. People stood in lines all over the country for newspapers to commemorate the event. Others wept openly at news of his election. As for me, I am very happy to see this day come and I am hopeful for the future because of it, but I just don't share this joy that everyone else seems to have.

Perhaps its because I am somewhat cynical (I know, shocking!). I have always felt like an outsider, observing the world while not necessarily feeling part of it, so events like these don't always have the same effect on me. I tend to reserve a (rather) large piece of myself that observes with an unemotional detachment. Its why I was unmoved initially by the Obama candidacy and supported Hillary Clinton. At that time, it seemed to me that Obama's appeal was based in high-minded rhetoric and emotion. Once I was able to see his policy positions and how his rhetoric infused those positions, I became a supporter.

My cynical nature also comes out when I see people talking about how life changing this event is personally. Really? It is certainly a VERY VERY positive change in American life because it reaffirms the premises of this country. For children and teenagers, they can dream a dream that they may have thought was realistically impossible even the day before. For adults, it may open a world of possibilities as leaders in their local community or nationally. They will be inspired by the story of a man who rose from modest means, without the help of wealth, family name, or even a father, to become President of the United States. Even for me, I used to dream that I could one day be a US Senator, even the Majority Leader, a dream I dismissed as impossible once I accepted my gayness. A BLACK GAY senator? Yeah right! But now, I suddenly find myself dusting off that dream and examining it afresh.

Hmmm... maybe this election was a little more life changing than I thought.

Gotta go. Hopefully they still have the commemorative edition of the Washington Post for sale!

It is done!

This morning, I fulfilled my civic duty and voted. I got to the polling place around 8am, figuring there would be a line, but I still gagged when I saw how far down the block the line was. I put in my earphones and passed the time, mainly so that I would not be forced to make idle chitchat with strangers.

While we are on the subject, thank GAWD for the invention of the IPOD! It has saved me from many unwanted human interactions. So many times I am on the train, or the bus (GASP and SWOON!!) or a plane and someone next to me wants to talk. I guess I have a friendly face.

It never fails, though, that someone will still attempt to talk to me despite my best efforts. Sometimes it's innocent and they just are lost. More often than not, though, they just choose to ignore that I don't want to be bothered and decide to strike up a conversation anyway. That is the surest way to get the Gas Face, but I digress...

As a preamble to the rest of my story, it is important to describe the neighborhood I live in. My neighborhood can be broken down into three pieces. The area where I live, as you might expect, is the nicest. It is a collection of middle middle and lower upper middle income residences. To the south of my area is a narrow band of lower middle to middle income families that surrounds the projects. This part of the neighborhood is frequently the scene of police activity, and as such, makes my part of the nieghborhood fairly safe because the police are always just around the corner. (I'm still moving next year though! Middle upper middle here I come!!!!)

So anyhoo...

I had assumed that the pollilng place wouldn't be that busy because most of the people in the projects and the lower middle/middles wouldn't vote. I was pleasantly surprised to see that this election had brought out EVERYONE, even though it would force me to endure the press of the common folk. After about an hour, I finally get inside the polling place which is a Rec Center in the middle of the projects. Its a beautiful modern building with a lovely basketball court and a job placement center. I hated it immediately, but that is the subject of another rant.

I found my way to the sign-in, which wasn't easy given that the check-in wasn't well marked and the handwriting on the sign was that of a serial killer. I got in the "S threw W" line (SIGH!) which was much shorter than the "N thru R" or the "M" lines (Apparently, a lot of people in my neighborhood have last names beginning with the letter M). This girl behind me tapped me on the shoulder: "I ain't neva done dis before. Do we get in line by first name or last name?" She was young and innocent, if very very ghetto, so instead finding her mother and slappng the shyt out of her, I told her that we were all in line by last name. She smiled up at me and headed off. My heart melted a tiny bit; I had done my good deed for the day.

It dawned on me that despite the fact that my line was much shorter than other, it was not moving nearly as fast. I looked to the front and saw the reason why. Gentle readers, you will no doubt remember Ricky Smiley's character of "Li'l Darryl" from BET's Comic View (oh my God, I just threw up in my mouth a little). Well the sign-in lady was Li'l Darryl slightly less "special" sister. Finally, I got my card and then went to get my actual ballot. I opted for the electronic ballot, figuring it would be easier to complete than the paper ballot which required you to fill in the ovals with a number 2 pencil like it was pop quiz in civics class.

Then I had to wait while people who had never used a computer before and did not understand the concept of the touch screen fumbled their way through the process. One guy was at the screen for like 10 minutes. It happened to so many people that I began to wonder if there was a problem with the machine or if there were more local elections that I wasn't aware of. Ultimately, my cynicism proved spot on and those people were just stupid, because it took me all of 30 seconds to vote.

Yay!!!!

Four days to go

... and I cannot wait. I am so over this election at this point. If I hear "...and I approved this message" one more time, it's gonna get ugly up in here.

Did you watch the Obama info-mercial? Now, I am not a crier, I'd just as soon cut your throat as look at you, but i squeezed out a few tears at the end there during the live rally.

Come on Tuesday!

And in case there was an confusion, there is no such thing as "Black Day Off" the Wednesday after the election.

Colin Powell

Today, another nail was placed in the coffin of the McCain candidacy by none other than Republican General Colin Powell.

His endorcement of Barack Obama is a well-reasoned summation of why, at this moment in history, Senator Obama is better suited to face the nation's challenges.

Two points stand out to me. The first is General Powell's questioning of the whole strategy surrounding the William Ayers situation and asking if Mr. Ayers is just a washed-up terrorist, why do we keep talking about him. Secondly, and more powerfully, General Powell questioned what would be the problem is Barack Obama was indeed a Muslim. He rightly called out such implicit and explicit attacks on the Senator as "not American."

Bravo General. Guess who's getting nominated as the next Secretary of State? or would you prefer Defense? The choice is yours.

Poor Joe...

Poor, dumb, stupid attention-seeking Joe.

Well, it seems that Mr. the Plumber is being torn down by the minute. I must admit, in spite of my previous post, I still was feeling a little sorry for him. I mean, he had no idea John McCain was going to call him out like that. Next thing you know, every major news organization is camped out on his front lawn.

I even continued to feel sorry for him after his first comments, because what would you do if you opened your door and the people and the lights and the questions? You would answer them. Then I started listening to his answers.

First of all, in his orginal question to Senator Obama, he was obviously trying to embarass the Senator or trip him up somehow. He asked the Senator if he believed in the American Dream. What kind of fucked up bullshit gotcha question is that? Who the fuck runs for President of the United States who doesn't believe in the American Dream?

Then, as he does more and more interviews, this guys starts coming off as more and more of an asshole. In one interview he said it didn't matter whether or not there were ever any weapons of mass destruction, because "We took the fight to them." Who exactly is them, Mr. the Plumber? The more than 100,000 Iraqis who have died in this conflict?

Further analysis by people much more educated on these topics than I prove the points I made yesterday about Mr. the Plumber's arguments. Even if he bought the business as he indicated, it would have to generate income well into the 7 figures for Joe to have taxable income of more than $250k. And what does that mean class?

HE WOULD PAY NO ADDITIONAL TAXES.

The company McCain said the plumber wants to buy has annual sales of $510,000, according to an analysis by Dun & Bradstreet. That makes it unlikely that Wurzelbacher's purchase would give him a taxable income of more than $200,000 -- leaving him unaffected by Obama's proposal to roll back tax breaks for those earning more than $250,000, said Steven Bankler, a certified public accountant in San Antonio, who counts plumbers and other trade professionals as his clients. --Bloomberg.com

Assuming our buddy Joe the dumbass did somehow fuck his way to the top of the plumbing trade (it obviously wasn't good business acumen), and earn $280k as taxable income, under the Obama plan, he would only have an increased tax burden of $773.

Here is the kicker. Joe should spend more time worrying about the back taxes he owes than the theoretical taxes he might have to pay if he somehow acquired this business. Joe owes almost $1200 in back taxes and the filing of an additional lien is imminent. I guess Joe's American Dream involves cheating the system and ducking out on medical bills.

Joe the Plumber took a bad situation and made it worse by opening his yap. He could have refused to comment further, but he didn't. On top of that, he espoused positions that some might consider unpopular. And to add insult to injury, he was critical of others when he didn't have his own house in order. Therefore, Joe ultimately has no one to blame for this invasion of his privacy but himself.

In the interest of full disclosure, Mother owes back taxes to both the IRS and the State of Maryland. The difference between Mother and Mr. the Plumber is that Mother has made arrangements to settle those debts, and Mother is not commenting on an issue about which Mother is uneducated on national television, nor is Mother casting stones from inside a glass house.

Thank you, say no more!

Fuck Joe the Plumber, and not in a good way!

Now that the debates are over, Barack Obama needs to stop worrying about these idiots like Mr. the Plumber, who will still not believe the candidate even when the words come out of his own mouth. Just concentrate on keeping the party faithful energized and getting them to the poles. Hell, between the Democrats and Republicans, we have been two years getting to this election. Undecided? How the hell can you not have made up your mind in all this time?

But I digress...

First of all, Mr. the Plumber isn't even a licensed plumber, so at best he's Joe the employee of the guy who owns the plumbing business. However, since his boss is not licensed, he is just Joe, that dude who does plumbing. Whatever, its just the two of them and the business makes over $250k a year. Which means that neither of them individually makes more than $250k unless Mr. the Plumber is the worst businessman ever (or best employee, depending on your viewpoint).

Senator Obama plainly said yesterday that individuals making less than $250k wouldn't see any increase in taxes and that those making less than $200k would get a tax cut. That means that neither Mr. the Plumber nor his employer have anything to worry about. Senator Obama also indicated that for those making more than $250k who were small business owners, they would be exempt from any tax increase as a generator of jobs. There again, Mr. the Plumber and his boss have nothing to worry about. According to the Small Business Administration's website, until their plumbing business generated more than $13 million annually and had more than 100 employees, it would still classed as a small business.

Yet and still, despite hearing these words from the mouth of the candidate himself, Joe the Plumber, world-renowned political and economics expert and philanthropist, still has trouble with Senator Obama's plan:

"If you believed (Obama), I'd be receiving his tax cuts," Wurzelbacher said.
"But I don't look at it that way. He'd still be hurting others."

Thank you for your concern Joe. Thinking like that is why you will never own that plumbing business unless your boss just gives it to you and even if that happens, you will never be more than you are now.

"I just hope I'm not making too much of a fool of myself," he added.

Too late for that, you putz!

Get Over it

Excuse me, everybody...
Excuse me, everybody...

... You would think Angelina Jolie was photographed getting her snatch waxed, the way people are in an uproar. I mean seriously, she is breastfeeding! Get over it!

Someone stole my sunglasses!

Back in the 60s a man named William Ayers was a terrorist, now he is a community activist and professor in Chicago. He also once held a fundraiser for Barack Obama. What of it? It was 13 years ago. Get over it!

Someone borrowed my sunglassses!

In the late 80s John McCain got caught up in the Savings and Loan scandal over his ties to Charles Keating. He was ultimately exonerated, so get over it!

I want my glasses back!
I want my sunglasses back!

Sarah Palin flunked out of several colleges before getting her degree. Her husband believes that Alaska should secede from the United States. She just got a passport last year. She's not what you would call literate. She (where was I going with this? Oh yeah...) Get over it! Fuck that, that bitch is unqualified to be vice-president of the PTA, let alone the United States.

Excuse me everybody...
I found my sunglasses!

Extra points if you can tell me where those lines are from. :-)

Don't fuck with David Letterman

Nuff Said!!!