Republican leader admits his party's tactics are just obstructionism

For my Republican friends, and for all of you to send to your Republican (or tea bagger tax-cut loving friends). Cantor admits that what Repubs want to do will increase the deficit. But haven't they gone after Pres. Obama on EVERYTHING HE'S DONE because it will increase the deficit? Um, yeah. This, people, is why w...e need to vote Democratic in the fall, even if they haven't done everything we've wanted. At this point, Republicans have exposed themselves as straight-up liars, and we cannot allow them to take back any substantial power.



I am not generally a proponent of straight party-line voting, but at this point the Republicans have shown their hand: their only goal is to oppose the President as much as possible.  We need to vote for Democrats up and down the ballot.

tinyrealbeautifullest

Okay, I'm FAHreaking out because I finally got in touch with a friend from WAY back who did the most unbelievable art (and I'm an art-snob/hater/whatever you want to call me, not in a hipster way but just in a, don't throw some shit together cuz you're a hipster and think that makes you an artist way.)  I mean, anyone can create art and be an artist; I don't get to judge that.  No one does and no one should.  But some people are extremely talented and work hard as hell to hone their craft and fulfill their vision.

And Dante Brebner is one of those people.  These pieces may not look like much at first - I mean, beautiful photos - until you look at the size.  Each of these dioramas is viewed through a very small hole in a very small box.  When I saw some of them in person about a decade ago, I actually had a hard time believing what I was seeing. 

My Fantasy Duo . . .

Check out my girl Malia Lazu, whom I was fortunate enough to get to work closely with and learn from these past couple of months, on Grit TV, hosted by my huge celebrity nerd-crush Laura Flanders (whom I did meet once at a protest, so really, we're like best friends too.)

And check Malia's latest project here: http://www.theurbanlabs.com/

The section with Malia starts at around 8:50:
More GRITtv

Mookie on Valium

After surgery a while ago, Mookie was on a couple of drugs, including Valium. She's usually this unbelievably athletic and agile animal. On a muscle relaxer, um . . . not so much.

Dodd puts Republi-Baggers in their place

Chris Dodd gave an impassioned speech in support of his Wall  Street Reform bill that also lays out the clearest, simplest argument yet (that I've heard) for how Republicans are putting politics over the interests of the American people (not to mention the interest of the rest of the world, since Wall Street helped crash the global economy.)

I really want a Republican - or Tea Partier - to explain to me how you can blame Obama and the Democrats for the bad economy and hate the bailouts (both of which of course actually started under Bush) but then oppose Obama and the Democrats when they try to pass regulations to prevent Wall Street from screwing us all and crashing the economy again.

These are the viewpoints that I think sum up the Republican and Tea Parties:

Republican Party: "Socialize Debt, Privatize Wealth" (as in, originally Repubs supported bailing out Wall Street, no strings attached, under Bush, remember, remember?  And now, after their meeting with Wall Street execs they're opposing Dodd's Wall Street Reform Bill, they'd rather leave Wall Street unregulated so that banks and financial firms can continue to screw over consumers/taxpayers and leave us once again in the position of bailing them out when they fail.)

Tea Party: "Get the Government's Hands Off My Medicaid", i.e. privatize everything (like Medicaid, which um, er, is government-funded).  I always wonder who these people think pays for their roads, their sewers, etc., and whether any of their kids go to public schools.

Anyway, in opposition to these idealogues, watch Dodd's brilliant speech HERE.

Wii Rage

Burgerman!!!

Burgerman aka Sam Novey ran the entire Boston Marathon today in a full hamburger suit to raise money for Citizen Schools.
We rocked out with him at the 20-mile mark.  Check out this incredible piece of action journalism:

Some tax comparisons

Here's a report on income tax rates over the past 50 years, to go along with the last post, showing that
income taxes are the second lowest they've been in 50 years . . .

Tea Partiers protesting taxes. What Taxes?

Remember the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest but not the rest of us? Remember, the same Bush who wrecked the economy? This is for all those Tea Partiers and Republicans (sorry, but y'all have gone overboard at this point) who are freaking out thinking Obama's gonna take all their money . . .

Think about whether you got a bigger refund this year than last year . . .

And think about the fact that taxes are LOWER UNDER OBAMA THAN THEY WERE UNDER REAGAN . . .

Calculate here:
How much money could you save on your taxes thanks to the Recovery Act?

And watch Mookie here: