The Pike Company Needs To Learn What MANDATORY Means

You know, Mittsy Romney keeps telling us that he's the best man to fix the economy and that's why we should vote for him come November, but I know a group of coal miners who say Mittsy wasn't very good for their paychecks recently.

It seems that Mittsy was in Ohio earlier this month, visiting a coal mine to talk about boosting jobs in the coal industry, but while he was there the miners lost a day’s wages because attendance at the Romney rally was mandatory and unpaid.

The Pepper Pike Company owns the Century mine where the workers, according to Murray Energy Chief Financial Officer Rob Moore, were told they must attend the rally without pay. Moore says that mine managers "communicated to our workforce that the attendance at the Romney event was mandatory, but no one was forced to attend."

Attendance is mandatory but you don't have to attend? WTF kind of logic is that?

But then Moore goes on to say that the mine had to be shut down for "safety and security" reasons during Romney's visit, and that miners often lose a days pay when the mines are shut down due to weather or power outages. But aren't those things you can't really control? A Mittsy visit was planned for a work day; it could have, and should have, been held another day. 

Then Moore also explains that federal election law forbids paying employees to attend political events. Okay, yeah, I can see that, when the employee chooses to attend the event. But, again, the Pike Company shut down the mines and told the workers they had to attend. That's not good for the workers, or the economy, or, well, I guess it was good for Mittsy's ego because he got a crowd of miners to stand in front of him like they were happy to be there.

Moore didn't see anything negative in attending Romney's campaign appearance: "We are talking about an event that was in the best interest of anyone that's related to the coal industry in this area or the entire country."

But then you take away a day’s pay. How is that in the best interests of the workers if this economy is bad?

Siding with Rob Moore was Murray Energy spokesman Gary Broadbent: "Rob Moore made it abundantly clear that no employees were forced to attend the Romney event. All participation was, and always has been, completely voluntary."

Mandatory.Is.Not.Voluntary.

And many of the miners reported feeling intimidated into attending Romney's appearance, and they report being told they would lose that day’s pay unless they could make up their missed hours on overtime or weekends.

Their missed hours were forced on them. Does no one, the mine spokes-tools or the CFO, or even Mittsy Romney, for heaven's sake, see the idiocy in this situation? Or is that a ridiculous question when you consider it's Mittsy?

Sidenote: Murray Energy contributed over $900,000 to GOP candidates in the last two years.

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The Height of GOP Stupidity, Part Nine: John Boehner Hopes Blacks and Latinos 'Won't Show Up' To The Polls

Down in Tampa, for the Republican National Convention, aka Hate-a-palooza, House Speaker John Boehner seems to have admitted that his party's strategy for winning in November doesn't suppose that the GOP can win over some black and Latino voters, but hopes they won't vote at all. 

Boehner wasn't talking about voter I.D. laws, which are being pushed by Republicans and criticized as disenfranchising minority and poor voters, but he did tell a luncheon hosted by the Christian Science Monitor in Tampa Monday that the Republican Party was counting on apathy from the Latinos and blacks who are choosing Democrats over Republicans by record margins in recent polls:

“This election is about economics… These groups have been hit the hardest. They may not show up and vote for our candidate but I’d suggest to you they won’t show up and vote for the president either.”

Not a big stretch for the GOP, if you remember that Doug Priesse, chair of the Franklin County, Ohio, Republican Party, allowed that restrictions on early voting hours and voter ID laws were meant to keep blacks from voting: 

"I guess I really actually feel we shouldn’t contort the voting process to accommodate the urban — read African-American — voter-turnout machine… Let’s be fair and reasonable."

It seems pretty clear that this is the GOP. They aren't so much about winning the election on merit as they are about preventing the people who might vote for Barack Obama from doing so.

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Architecture Wednesday: Barcelona Beauty

The architects for this house, located in Barcelona, Spain, love some music and some mathematics. in fact, this house uses a superimposed 7×7 meter skewed grid to support the program in a composition similar to a musical score. 
Blibbety blah blay blue. It's just cool.
from HomeDSGN:
"The diagonals serve as a roof system that ungulates like an artificial topography, creating skylights in some cases, while in others situations, rising up double the height of other rooftop peaks.
At the base floor, the program develops a direct relationship between the interior and exterior through the abundant use of glasswork, trellises, and sliding panels. This allows a visual connection to the garden for the following spaces: the rooms, halls, library, dining rooms, kitchen, main bedroom and guest suites.
Vertically consistent relationships exist between the main floor and adjacent floors, always responding to the programmatic demands, and therefore completing the three dimensional continuity of the building.
The areas on the lower floor are service areas of the main program, such as a cellar communicating directly with the dining room, a video library communicating with the library; an inside swimming pool and Turkish bath, an extension of the main bedroom, and a service flat leading directly to the kitchen areas.
The upper level serves as the Piano Nobile, or private level, from which a direct relationship to the surrounding landscape is still maintained through the use of glazing.
The layout is completed with private access to the patio. Its secluded position contrasts the luminous presentation of the house. Ceramic tiles are used as cladding on the rooftops as well as the perimeter walls. Light enters at specific points of the program where large sections of glazing complete the building.”
Or....blibbety blah blay blue. it's just cool.
As always, click to emBIGGERate:

Realy, Fox"News"? Really?

Okay, so I don't watch Fox"News" because I like some facts in my news and not just the inane gibberish of a paid Rupert Murdoch pundit making giant leaps between the real story and how Obama will destroy America.

Case in point: first man on the Moon, Neil Armstrong died last week, but Fox"News" couldn't just tell that story. They had to spin the astronaut's death into some kind of anti-Obama message, and, well, dimbulb Monica Crowley did just that, Tweeting....

Yes, because Armstrong's death was not the story, it was just a way to prove that Obama is out to, um, Muslim-ize the space program. Or something. Then, because most of the world, even the dimmest of bulbs in the world, wondered WTF Crowley was saying so she tweeted this.....

The article Crowley cites actually says: 

"In an interview last month on Al-Jazeera, NASA chief Charlie Bolden said that one of NASA’s foremost tasks is to engage with Muslim nations. The White House disagreed, suggesting that the agency should perhaps focus on space exploration."

But why dwell on the facts, Monica, when you can twist the death of an American icon, an American hero,m into some rant against Obama.

Fox"News".

Not so much.

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The Height of GOP Stupidity, Part Eight: Paul Ryan Says Rape Is A Method of Conception

Paul Ryan is a raging Catholic. Okay, good for him. i mean, we have Freedom of Religion in this country, so good for him. But, Paul Ryan wants to use his religious beliefs to tell the rest of us, especially women, how to live our lives, and to tell women they do not have the right of choice, even in the case of rape and incest.

In fact, in an interview last week, after being pegged as Mittsy's Golden Boy, Ryan defended his anti-abortion position, saying that there in no excuse for abortion, and he even suggested that rape is a "method of conception." And yet no one is talking about it.

Paul Ryan says rape is a method of conception.

Now, to be fair, a woman who is raped, can conceive a child, I guess, even if many in the GOP believe her uterus has a force field to protect itself from unwanted sperm, but rape as a method of conception? Forcible rape? Paul? Legitimate rape?

Todd Akin wasn't the first to float the idea of a woman's body having super powers able to detect rapists sperm and deny them entrance, and yet look what's happened to him. He's become both the Poster Boy of GOP Stupidity and the Whippin' Boy of the GOP. But, and I'm happy to report, Todd Akin will never be a heartbeat away from becoming President.

No, that lucky position could go to Paul Ryan, if Mittsy wins in November, and imagine a Paul Ryan presidency. Telling victims of rape and incest that abortion is not an option. They weren't raped at all, people, it's just another "method of conception".

Forcible, legitimate conception.

Wake up, America, this cannot happen in our country. Are we to begin looking at a rape victim, and smiling and offering congratulations, and then planning a baby shower for her because President Ryan says so?

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The Height of GOP Stupidity, Part Seven: In Arizona, Women Are Considered Pregnant Two Weeks BEFORE Conception

I used to think Jan Brewer, racist, ignorant, and downright stupid, governor of Arizona, was the height of GOP stupidity, but I've recently discovered an entire legislature of lunatics in the Grand Canyon State, aka The empty Noggin State.

See, the Arizona Legislature has passed three incredibly harsh anti-abortion bills last week, including one that defines pregnancy as....wait for it...it's pretty amazing....two weeks before conception. I am admittedly a little dense in the internal workings of the womenfolk of the world--having kept my distance my whole life--but, um, pregnancy happens before conception?

It will, from now on in Arizona, because now it reduces the legal window of when a woman may have an abortion.

Arizona state Representative, Democrat, and a doctor, Matt Heinz does not want the state to set the gestational age since science could not provide a precise one. “I imagine it will be a legal dispute. How can a judge determine gestational age? If medical science can only determine gestational age to within 10-14 days, how can a superior court judge do it?”

Apparently, the wingnut contingent in Arizona thinks there are smarter than scientists and doctors, and thinks judges are, as well.

Now, this asshatted display of lunacy isn't the only anti-abortion bill to pass in Ari-Crazy. In addition to that bill that would prohibit abortions after the 18th week of pregnancy, the GOP-controlled House also passed a bill to protect doctors from being sued if they withhold health information about a pregnancy that might cause a woman to seek an abortion; and a bill to mandate that how school curriculums address the topic of unwanted pregnancies.

The 18th week bill has a sentence that defines gestational age as “calculated from the first day of the last menstrual period of the pregnant woman,” which would move the beginning of a pregnancy up two weeks prior to conception.

Lucky women, now they are pregnant before they actually conceive a child.

In Arizona at any rate. No word on whether wingnut Governor Jan "Eva Braun" Brewer will sign or veto any of these three bills.

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Charlie Rogers Makes It Hard To Be Gay

You know, being A Gay is hard work. I mean, we ask to visit our loved ones in hospitals and we need a team of lawyers and the Constitution to do so. We have to enact legislation around the country just so we can't get fired or evicted simply for being A Gay. We want to get married but we're told we don't deserve "Special Rights." We want to adopt and some folks say we'll just molest the child, and make them into A Gay. It's hard work, and sometimes I wonder why I do it.

And sometimes, when I wonder why some people don’t like us, I read stories like this one:

Charlie Rogers, a Nebraska Lesbian told local police that she was attacked in her home on July 22. She said three men, all in black ski masks broke into her house, tied her up with zip ties, beat her and carved anti-gay slurs into her body. The men allegedly spray painted homophobic slurs around her house, and then doused it with gasoline before setting it on fire. Charlie Rogers did manage to escape around 4 a.m. and made her way to a neighbor’s home.

How utterly horrific.

Trouble is, it appears Charlie Rogers fabricated the entire tale, and now police in Lincoln have arrested her for making a false report. Rogers pleaded not guilty to the charges and her lawyer, Brett McArthur maintains that the attack did happen.

But police said after interviewing Rogers four different times, they discovered inconsistencies in her story: “A great deal of time and resources were spent investigating Charlie Rogers’ claims in hopes of identifying and arresting the three suspects in this case. As the investigation progressed and additional interviews were completed, the department received results from forensic analysts and experts making it apparent that the physical evidence conflicted with Charlie Rogers’ version of events.”

One of the things the police found odd, was when they entered Charlie Roger's house on the morning of July 22, they found the bed, upon which she said she was attacked and tied and bound, to be neatly made, with the bedspread appearing “neat” and “evenly placed on the bed.”

Rogers reportedly told police that she was attacked while in bed, and that she was rolled onto her stomach after the men cut her arms, her legs, her stomach, and chest, and yet there was no blood at all found on the bedspread. Forensic tests also found no blood.

Additionally, once the FBI became involved, because this looked to be an anti-gay Hate Crime, they sent photos of the cuts on Rogers' body to the Lancaster County coroner, as well as to Dr. Michelle Elieff, a forensic pathologist, who found that Rogers’ cuts appeared to be self-inflicted. Elieff also found no bruises on Roger's body, even though she alleges that the three men beat her.

To top it off, while investigating the "crime," police officers found clothing, a pair of white knit gloves and a red box cutter on the living room floor. Rogers denies the gloves were hers, but DNA tests proved that she was the “major contributor” of DNA inside of them, according to the warrant. And all of those items were purchased at a local hardware store five days before the attack, and a clerk at the store has indentified Charlie Rogers as the person who bought them.

As for the homophobic slurs spray[painted in the basement, police say they discovered them after Rogers told the responding officer about them the morning of her alleged attack. In later interviews, however, Rogers claimed she did not know anything about the graffiti because she left her house immediately after the attack.

Horrific. And once the story broke there were multiple vigils held around the county and thousands of LGBT-rights supporters donated money in support of Rogers. Charlie Rogers said she didn’t want to attend any of the vigils because she was in hiding, and wouldn’t speak publicly about her attack for fear of influencing the police investigation. 

After about a week, police had found no suspects, and began to question if Rogers invented the entire story. Part of their concern was a Facebook post Rogers wrote on July 18, just four days before the attack: "So maybe I am too idealistic, but I believe way deep inside me that we can make things better for everyone. I will be a catalyst. I will do what it takes. I will. Watch me." 

With the police questioning her veracity, Rogers spoke to the media on July 27, saying, “I understand that people sort of have a hard time wrapping their heads around the things that have happened, as do I. But I’m a person with feelings, with concerns. For people to think that this doesn’t happen here, it does. It did.”

Maybe it does, maybe there are Hate Crimes in Lincoln, and maybe gay men and women get attacked in their homes, but when someone like Charlie Rogers comes along and appears to have concocted this entire story, it makes it harder for police, and the public, to trust us when we say a Hate Crime actually occurred.

People like Charlie Rogers make it harder to be A Gay.

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Dear Nikki Haley: Grow The F**k Up

Nikki Haley is supposedly one of the GOP's bright, shiny stars--she's even been given a chance to speak at the RNC this week--but there are many of us in South Carolina who find this questionable. See, Nikki is just the kind of politician the GOP--in the wake of Todd Akin's idiocy--should avoid. She's a tyrant and a bully, and, well, a liar; if she doesn't get her way, she foot stomps and pouts and cries foul.

She's.....she's.....she's Mittsy, in a dress.

After the Mark "Hiking The Appalachian Trail So I Can Schtup My Mistress In Rio" Sanford debacle, Nikki Haley ran for Guv'nah of South Carolina on a platform of transparency. We would never question her, she said; her office would be open, she said.

She lied. And when people question her lies, Nikki gets pissy. Again, like Mittsy.

A week or so ago, Governor Nikki Haley and Attorney General Alan Wilson unveiled a package of ethics reform proposals at a news conference in Charleston. The first reporter to speak after the governor opened up the floor to questions was The State's Gina Smith and as she finished her question, Haley shot back, "Gina, I am not going to answer any of your questions," before moving on to other reporters in the room.

Wow. Why so harsh Nikki? Well, as with most high school mean girls, and Nikki surely has the demeanor of a mean girl, she took to Facebook to respond to why she refused to answer any questions by Smith:

"In response to my refusal to answer Gina Smith's question today; she is the same report that 1) wrote a Front Page, Above the Fold story about me being indicted, with no truth what so ever. 2) She went on to write a story about my 14 year old daughter without having the facts, against the urging of SLED Chief Keel that said it was unprecedented to write about a governor's child knowing the safety concerns. Respect is a two way street."

Um, Nikki, you're a public official, dear, and reporters write the stories the public needs to hear. There was an indictment, though it was never handed down, but it was a story. As for the story about your child, she didn't write about your child, she wrote about you using your influence as governor, to get your child a job.

Take it slow Nikki. You get yourself all riled up. See, this isn't the first time Haley has clashed with a reporter in public. Back in 2011, Haley referred to Renee Dudley, a Post and Courier reporter, as a "little girl" during a radio interview. The comment was in response to Dudley's reporting on expenses incurred during a European trip by Haley and other state officials.

Haley later said she regretted her choice of words.

Well, that makes me wonder, why act like a little girl yourself, Nikki, and refuse to answer a reporters’ questions because you don't like what they've said about you in the past. Why not rise above and answer a question? Because, like Mittsy, and most of the GOP, you don't feel any need to respond to questions that are too hard, or too deep.

So, so transparent.

The Height of GOP Stupidity, Part Six: Don Dwyer Is A Drunk Boater

Don H. Dwyer Jr, a Maryland delegate, is the poster boy for the GOP. He hates The Gays and works very hard to keep us from equality. He also wants to keep us from adopting children because he says The Gays are bad for kids. On the plus side, Dwyer supported a ballot measure that would strip lawmakers of their office if they are found guilty of serious crimes; Maryland voters will make a decision on this ballot measure in November.

Why is any of this interesting? 

Well, Dwyer was out on his boat over the weekend, with another man--and I leave any thoughts of alleged homosexually to the reader, though we all know the biggest homophobes are the closeted homosexuals--and they were having drinks. Dwyer was apparently having a lot of drinks, and after getting his drunk on full bore he crashed his boat into a boat full of children.

Four of the children were injured with one, a five year old girl, taken by helicopter to Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, while the two adults on the boat were unharmed.

The crash was so severe that Dwyer’s boat sunk in the river. Luckily, Dwyer survived and his blood alcohol level was 0.2, which is twice the legal limit.

Oh, the irony. The man who says Gay folks are bad for kids, gets riproaring drunk while "boating" with a buddy and crashes into a boat filled with children. Who's the danger again, Don?

Dwyer said, at a press conference, "It is true that I was drinking while operating my boat. No one, no one, should be drinking and operating a motor vehicle or powerboat. I deeply regret my actions, and I ask for forgiveness from the public. My heart and prayers go out to the family that was involved in the accident, and I pray for them to have a speedy recovery."

Pot.Kettle.Time to get out of office, Don.

See, if Dwyer's ballot measure passes in November, then this little Tea Party man might just find himself out of office under the law.

Well, at least he got one thing right.

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Has God Forsaken The GOP? Should She?

You gotta love what a bitch Karma can be, especially when she's aiming at the morally corrupt, holier-than-thou GOP. They tout their runs for office as messages from God; they try to use their religion as a means of passing laws. They quote Scripture instead of Legislation.

I mean, we all remember last year when GOP dingbat, the certifiably insane Michele Bachmann, running for president of these here United States, said that East Coast earthquake, along with Hurricane Irene, was just God trying “to get the attention of the politicians.” The remarks were later termed a joke, though you know damn well Bachmann believes every idiotic syllable she utters.

Then we had GOP butt-kissing lap-dog, Glenn Beck tell us all that the Japanese earthquake and tsunami were God’s “message being sent” to that country. Of course, he was just riding the Winged Monkey of one Pat Robertson, who a year earlier, blamed the Haitian earthquake to that country’s “pact to the devil.”

And even before that bit of spoken word lunacy, we cannot forget Pat Roberston, again, saying Hurricane Katrina was sent here as God’s punishment for abortion, while the Reverend John Hagee, a nutjob with a collar, said Katrina was God's punishment because The Gays were gonna party in Nawlins. And, tracking even back a bit further, 'memba when the late Jerry Falwell said God allowed the 9/11 attacks as retribution for feminists and the ACLU.

Yeah, the GOP and her rightwing of nuttiness, the Moral Majority, the Conservatives, the Religious Right, have spent decades blaming every natural disaster and every act of terrorism, on an act of God for us being gay, or feminists, or, I dunno, Devil Worshippers or something.

But, funny now, that the GOP is remarkably silent over the latest bit of God interventions. And why is that? Is it because they realized, finally, how unbelievably stupid they sound, or is it because now God is throwing the other shoe at them?

Case in point or cases in point:

The report last week that a couple dozen House Republicans engaged in an alcohol-induced frolic, in one case nude, in the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus is believed to have walked on water, calmed the storm and, nearby, turned water into wine and performed the miracle of the loaves and fishes.

And then the tale of so-delusional-he-needs-to-be-hospitalized, Congressman Todd Akin, Missouri’s Republican nominee for Senate, suggesting there is such a thing as “legitimate rape” and saying that women's bodies have the power to detect sperm from a rapist and stop it from impregnating them. 

And then we have another Hurricane, Isaac, churning and spitting right towards Tampa, just as the GOP gathers to nominate their pandering fuckmonkey of a candidate, tax-evading, question-evading, lying asshat Mittsy Romney.

So, is God mad at the GOP? Should she be? I dunno the answers to those questions, but the GOP is staying remarkably calm and subdued about their God theories. It's nice, but as for what happens next, God only knows.

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The Height of GOP Stupidity, Part Five: Mittsy's A Birther!

If Little Mittsy Romney wasn't such a fucking crybaby all the time, some of the stories about him might be funny; or, failing that, they might just simply disappear as quickly as they appear.

See, Mittsy spends a lot of time whining about the Obama camp's attacks on him. They're hateful! They're divisive! Stick to the message! He said the President wasn't playing fair when he asked to see Mittsy's tax returns, though, for the record, a majority of the country also asked for those.

And just a week or so ago, Mittsy foot-stomped-and-head-snapped all over the country because of Joe Biden's "They're gonna put y'all in chains" comment. He demanded an apology! How dare you, Mr. President, stoop so low?

Yet this is the same Mittsy Romney, desperate to pander to the fringiest elements of the GOP, the Tea Baggers, who made a joke--lame as it was and lame as he is--about President Obama's birth certificate while speaking to voters in Michigan:

“Now I love being home in this place where Ann and I were raised, where both of us were born. Ann was born in Henry Ford Hospital. I was born in Harper Hospital. No one’s ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place that we were born and raised.”

Oh.My.Sides. What a high-larious bit of hijinks. or, you know, pandering disguised as hijinks. Racism disguised as a feeble attempt at a joke because you've got nothing else to offer.

Of course, as the story broke--and that lil old quote up there is a direct quote so let's not try to soft-sell his remarks--Mittsy's people scrambled to walk back his comments, saying he was simply sharing his Michigan pride.

Um, but that begs the question, how does questioning the current president's birth certificate show pride in your home state? Oh, unless your pride manifests itself in pandering to lunatics who don't take the facts for the truth.

The Obama campaign snapped right back:

“Throughout this campaign, Governor Romney has embraced the most strident voices in his party instead of standing up to them. It’s one thing to give the stage in Tampa to Donald Trump, Sheriff Arpaio, and Kris Kobach. But Governor Romney’s decision to directly enlist himself in the birther movement should give pause to any rational voter across America.”

And even though Romney handlers, who you just know are underpaid and overworked, kept reiterating that Romney believes the President was born in America--how thoughtful of him--but that he was simply talking about his own local roots.

The Obama campaign responded, "Bull shit."

Okay, maybe that was just me. But I am so tired of Mittsy playing the wounded animal, and crying about attacks over his lack of transparency when it comes to his taxes and donations and banks and dogs on roofs. I'm tired of him asking for a civilized campaign and then resorting to this kind of neanderthal jackassery. 

I, for one, would never question Mittsy's birthplace, just as I would never question Obama's. I do, however, have questions about why Mittsy's money lives outside the US and why he has such a hard time sharing his tax records with us. I do have questions about why he was pro-Choice a few years back and now he's pro-Life; I question his, albeit tenuous, support for LGBT rights, and his current stance.

You can't have it both ways, Mittsy. You can't cry when negative things are said about you, and then flip-flop.....oh, wait, that's what you do best.

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Sunday Funnies