tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67819402012-02-20T00:37:05.368-05:00The ExpansionistL. Craig Schoonmaker, Chairman of the Expansionist Party of the United States, addresses issues of the day. For an overview of XP's goals, see <a href="http://www.expansionistparty.org">www.expansionistparty.org</a>. Send email about political issues to <a href="mailto:XPUS@aol.com">XPUS{on the service}aol.com</a>.L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comBlogger11621100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-13739247640778725332012-02-19T23:59:00.003-05:002012-02-20T00:37:05.382-05:00GOP vs. POP. The best people in this country are Liberals, and mostly Democrats. The tuffest and nastiest people, alas, are Radical Rightists and Republicans. It would be the easiest thing in the world for an American Hitler to recruit a new SA or SS from among the Radical Right, who would gladly beat, stab, and shoot their fellow Americans to get their way, rationalizing that they must never L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-49356448338825911622012-02-06T19:51:00.004-05:002012-02-06T19:58:36.552-05:00Greatest Generation, Your Ass! Brian Williams, anchor of NBC Nitely News, ticked me off again tonite in talking nonsense about the "Greatest Generation". I sent the following email to NBC News, about its appalling lack of perspective.Kindly STOP using the preposterous term "Greatest Generation" to refer to the Great Depression-WWII generation. If you truly believe that these people, who SUFFERED L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-62675332687072371092012-02-04T19:05:00.001-05:002012-02-04T19:05:46.622-05:00Time for Sanctions against Russia and China. The former dipoles of the Communist world conspiracy, Moscow and Beijing, have become obstinate advocates of barbarism, this time in vetoing UN action on Syria. It's time they paid the price for their inexcusably monstrous behavior. We should move to strip them of their vetoes, as the first shot over their bows. Once that motion is itself vetoed, we L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-29360798470961443912012-01-24T19:13:00.003-05:002012-01-25T11:15:50.010-05:00Gatekeepers No More: The Impending,Technological End to the Power of the Rich. Everything that is wrong about American politics is changing due to technology. The tyrants of the U.S. economic order are facing the same kind of challenges that the dictators of the Arab world confronted in the Arab Spring. Oh, dictators with guns can still hold on for months, but not, perhaps, for years, once publicL. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-6606116279939229192012-01-22T17:05:00.003-05:002012-01-22T17:13:17.171-05:00Romney's 36%, Gingrich's 41% "Wins". I remarked here January 2d that the primary system yields extreme results because of the tiny number of people who vote, split multiple ways. The New Hampshire and South Carolina results confirm my point. The "big winner" in NH was Mitt Romney, who won 36% of the vote. By any measure you care to name, that is NOT a victory in a genuine democracy, but misses a L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-28924487545688545922012-01-19T14:54:00.002-05:002012-01-19T15:05:45.405-05:00Another Two Bite the Dust. The Republican field has been narrowed by two more worthless candidates, one a decent man — who thus had no chance of being nominated by an indecent party — the other a dunce whose stupidity not even the most rabid Radical Rightists could defend.+We are left with Richie Rich, Ricky Religious, Newt the Mack, and the Libertarian Loon, little Ronnie Paul. What a field! L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-65658231349923529862012-01-09T23:59:00.005-05:002012-01-10T01:59:36.166-05:00Romney's "Dukakis Moment"? We all know that there's a certain amount of puffery, nonsense, and playing games with the truth if not outrite lying, in politics. But sometimes the hypocrisy is SO blatant that it torpedoes a candidate. With 1988 Democratic Presidential candidate Michael Dukakis (also a Governor of Massachusetts), that moment was when he did a foto-op in an M1 Abrams tank, despite a L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-33431670696390480892012-01-05T23:59:00.002-05:002012-01-06T01:06:27.401-05:00Evil Country. I have become profoundly disgusted with much that has happened to the United States in recent years, and now begin a series of commentaries about the immoral and repulsive things that have developed in what used to be a very decent country.+For this first, brief discussion, let me address the disgraceful behavior of some late-nite TV talkshow hosts. Jay Leno tonite made a "joke" L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-7014993105525629822012-01-04T19:41:00.004-05:002012-01-04T19:45:56.615-05:00And Another One Bites the Dust. I observed here December 30th that Michele Bachmann cannot possibly win the Presidency, and a general perception that she is not electable may help to explain her disastrous loss in her native state of Iowa. She won not one single county of 99. But Rick Santorum, who also cannot possibly win the Presidency against Obama, tied for first place with the L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-38825325215805076922012-01-02T00:16:00.009-05:002012-01-02T00:36:33.262-05:00Ignore Iowa. Why do media pay so much attention to the Iowa caucuses? Even tho major media have pointed out that Mike Huckabee won Iowa last time but lost the nomination badly, and that Reagan and Bush the Elder didn't win Iowa, they still waste tons of precious time on this absurdly unimportant event. NBC Nitely News today pointed out that the Iowa caucus vote is "too white, too evangelical, tooL. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-39489930612041595402011-12-31T07:16:00.001-05:002011-12-31T07:16:34.246-05:00Super-Rich Abandoning Obstructionism, Tea Party, Libertarianism? Odd things have been happening of late. The refusal of myriad businesses to hire has begun to break down. It has long been obvious that the enemies of President Obama have been trying very hard to keep the economy in recession to defeat Obama on economic grounds. This was a very difficult proposition, to keep the economy depressed L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-63973927031818597222011-12-30T19:52:00.003-05:002011-12-30T20:03:15.896-05:00Horserace, Shmorserace. What is wrong with the media today? All the talk about the Republican Party candidates for President is about the polls, and speculation about what will happen in the Iowa caucuses next week. Almost NOTHING is said about the IDEAS of the candidates or the PROGRAMS they would pursue if they were to become President. How does all this "horserace" nonsense contribute to the L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-75837203241510689862011-12-27T09:14:00.011-05:002012-01-02T23:06:05.689-05:00Today's very long post (7,800 words) relates to the elements of my reasonably long life, to date, that have produced my worldview. I am fine with people not reading this text if they are content with their own worldview, from their own history. Some people, however, might see something of their own situation in my circumstances, so find my experience instructive.67. I turned 67 years old early L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-64160568993815134862011-12-25T12:54:00.008-05:002011-12-25T13:26:45.312-05:00Video Christmas Card from Newark. Newark, NJ, has been my chosen hometown since June 2000 (I was born in December 1944) and is a wonderful place, esp. as against its absurdly undeserved reputation as urban hellhole. In actuality, Newark is very cultured. It is the largest city, in terms of population, in the State of New Jersey, the 11th most populous state of the Union. NJ would be higher in theL. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-29708371312995310052011-12-12T18:50:00.004-05:002011-12-12T18:57:29.925-05:00Fiting Fascism. I sent the following message via feedback form to Senators Reid (Democratic Senate leader), Lautenberg, and Menendez (the two Senators from my state, NJ) today.Unconstitutional indefinite detentionHow on Earth could a Democratic-controlled Senate approve an insanely unconstitutional permission for the military to arrest U.S. citizens and detain them indefinitely without trial? HowL. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-82044522009357109502011-12-05T14:14:00.002-05:002011-12-05T14:31:39.911-05:00Another Nail in Newt's Political Coffin. AOL today hilited a Huffington Post article that points out that he converted to Roman Catholicism in 2009, from Southern Baptist! What was he thinking? Had he (temporarily) lost all aspirations to the Presidency in 2009, so gladly taken that poison pill — or, should I say, poisoned communion wafer?+Let us be plain: the Republican Radical Right HATES the L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-8126085375728172082011-12-03T15:07:00.002-05:002011-12-03T15:12:29.796-05:00'Not with a bang but a whimper'. Herman Cain, the never-was candidate for the Republican Presidential nomination, has ended his faux-campaign with, as one might expect, a lie. He says he is "suspending" his campaign, not "ending" it.+I stated plainly here, on October 20th and again on November 9th, that there was absolutely no possibility of Herman Cain winning the Republican nomination. Yet for L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-30664757892448371262011-11-28T14:34:00.002-05:002011-11-28T14:44:18.475-05:00Gingrich and Romney, Two Tuf Rows to Hoe. Newt Gingrich is riding high in the polls of the announced Republican candidates for President, but he has major liabilities that seem likely to doom his candidacy.+For one, his marital misbehavior and extramarital affair/hypocrisy mark him out a detestable human being unfit to be the champion of the "family values" crowd that is so large a part of the (L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-78410356721543233042011-11-09T20:23:00.001-05:002011-11-09T20:23:56.052-05:00Idiotic 'Scandals'. Network newscasts this week have been fascinated by two dopy wastes of everybody's time. The first is the pointless speculation about whether Herman Cain has a history of sexually harassing co-workers. The second is indignation about supposedly insufficiently reverential handling of detached body parts of dead soldiers at Dover Air Force Base.(1) Herman Cain has absolutely no L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-9967978770774472822011-10-20T17:13:00.006-04:002011-11-28T14:59:35.782-05:00Nein, Nein, Nein! (Credit for that German version — No, No, No! — of Herman Cain's ridiculous tax proposal "9-9-9" goes to Jay Leno, from a monolog some weeks ago.)+Herman Cain, the poor, deluded black man who seems actually to think that the Republican Party is not fundamentally, viciously racist, has tried to make an impression upon potential voters with his 9-9-9 tax plan. Unfortunately for L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-11623901027259895132011-10-04T03:50:00.008-04:002011-12-11T12:52:25.131-05:00Email Answers. A friend in a northern suburb of my city (Newark, NJ) has sent me emails on a variety of political topics in the past couple of days, and I'd like to show here my replies, in no particular order.+On the challenge to "Obamacare" before the Supreme Court.Government is not authorized to tell people what to do with their after-tax income. The individual mandate is unconstitutional andL. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-13238384135420194102011-09-12T19:18:00.001-04:002011-09-12T19:21:21.043-04:00Censorship on HIV. I was today banned from the Huffington Post when directing readers to the website www.virusmyth.com. How is the Huffington Post entitled to forbid anyone from letting people know that there are alternative explanations for AIDS than HIV? What is wrong with the Huffington Post that they will brook no departure from The Official Government Line on AIDS?+I sent this brief note to L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-76236419940830101162011-09-06T23:59:00.015-04:002011-09-07T05:15:06.104-04:00Toast and Ice Cubes. I've been thinking today of vast technological change in my lifetime (I am 66 — and a half — years old). I love toast and ice cubes. Young people today will have no idea why anyone would feel that way, but old people will understand. When I was a small child, there was no such thing as an electric toaster, or if there was, it was not generally available at reasonable cost. L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-80446285106125547992011-08-24T04:06:00.003-04:002011-08-24T04:11:19.015-04:00'Why Canada Must End'. I got an interesting email today.
I stumbled upon your website the other day and thought you may be interested in my online book: http://www.whycanadamustend.com
Tony Kondaks
It occurs to me that I didn't clarify which website he found, this blog, or the Expansionist Party of the United States's domain-name website, or the less-comprehensive version on Tripod. The "L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-15302735873773526562011-08-07T12:06:00.004-04:002011-08-07T22:31:45.788-04:00Plugging Away — but Not Here. I mentioned on July 9th that I have been fiting Radical Right crazies online thru Huffington Post/AOL comments areas. At that time, I had posted 3,222 comments in that effort. As of this morning, the figure was 5,749 comments, by far most in opposition to outrageous remarks by Radical Rightists.+It is easy for you to view those comments, if you are interested in L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-83988661196656196352011-07-09T14:53:00.002-04:002011-07-09T14:56:56.816-04:00HuffPo Discussions. I have neglected this blog of late, spending too much time in posting comments to news stories on AOL/Huffington Post. HuffPo tries to rook people into commenting by allowing people to "fan" others they tend to agree with, and people strive to get more fans by posting more comments, and spending more time. It works, and some of us spend more time fiting the Radical Right L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-91557741160522577752011-06-17T15:10:00.001-04:002011-08-07T10:56:28.249-04:00Incompetence from Current TV. I just wasted a half hour of my life trying to participate in the discussion area around Keith Olbermann's new show on Current TV. I registered as a new user, logged in at the login page for the overall site, then clicked on an Olbermann video. At that page, I see that I am NOT logged in. So I click at the "login" link on the Olbermann page, and am taken back to the L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-4982319281807225902011-06-08T19:19:00.005-04:002011-06-08T19:26:51.466-04:00Cowards and Fools on Afghanistan. A CBS News poll today revealed that 64% of respondents want the U.S. to reduce troop levels in Afghanistan. And "Half of Americans - 51 percent - think the U.S. should not be involved in the war in Afghanistan". A number of members of Congress are becoming vocal to the same effect. What a bunch of losers.+The CBS Evening News story about that poll said that 164 L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-26873425431023094932011-05-30T20:13:00.006-04:002011-05-30T20:31:06.255-04:00Thoughts Prompted by Joint Chiefs Appointment. An article hilited on AOL today, "Martin Dempsey Named Chairman Of Joint Chiefs Of Staff By Obama" brought out a lot of the Radical Right loons who swarm any news story about President Obama. I answered some of them in the 49 comments below, comprising about 2,500 words. By the way, Dempsey is from New Jersey, my state. Yippee.No one has the L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-41869583283854230672011-05-29T20:46:00.007-04:002011-05-29T21:06:31.125-04:00McCain on Palin over Obama. John McCain has disgraced himself in stating, on Fox News Sunday today, that "of course" Sarah Palin could defeat President Obama in 2012 if she chose to run against him. I left a bunch of comments in reply to pre-existing comments at the Huffington Post/AOL news story about that statement. The following 32 comments, comprising 1,880 words, are representative. I also L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-88476688172253430752011-05-12T23:59:00.002-04:002011-05-21T02:40:00.429-04:00For unexplained reasons, Google's Blogger service, which hosts this blog, was unavailable for updates for two full days, so I could not timely upload todays post, nor what had been yesterday's, about another online article.Letting Illegals Stay, Despite the Law. I left the following 74 replies to comments (comprising about 4,000 words) at a Huffington Post story, "Chipotle, Undocumented Workers, L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-53513255290409893922011-05-11T23:59:00.003-04:002011-05-29T22:20:00.526-04:00Views of Obama on HuffPost/AOL. I left the following 85 comments (comprising about 6,700 words) after the online story "Analysis: Reimagining Obama After Gutsy Bin Laden Raid".I'll let you in on a secret: President Obama has the same personality defect that most people who achieve high office in a non-meritocratic democracy have: they want to be liked. They are encouraged in this dysfunctional L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-78544300762353352422011-04-24T20:05:00.005-04:002011-04-24T20:13:20.609-04:00Fiting the Right, Again. An AOL News story, "US Default on Debt Could Be Disastrous Choice for Economy", brought out a lot of the Radical Right propagandists who swarm AOL comments areas, tho not the worst of the lot. The issue was apparently a little too technical for some. But there was a lot of drivel posted there anyway, so I spent several hours trying to reach casual readers with the truth. L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-5853348974098003042011-04-15T23:59:00.009-04:002011-04-16T02:17:46.999-04:00Don't Trust Them. I get annoying offers of 'pre-approved' credit cards and personal loans (which of course are not really pre-approved at all, in most cases; you have to meet qualifications in an application to be submitted later), and there is advice as to how to get your address removed from their lists. As one offer I got from Citifinancial puts it:You can choose to stop receiving "prescreenedL. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-57025707638550002112011-04-14T23:54:00.001-04:002011-04-14T23:57:11.384-04:00Fawning Over Fake Royals. There are things about the United States today that disgust me, and fawning over British "royals" is one of the most noxious. One of my ancestors was a private in the Continental Army that threw the British royal family — then real — out of this part of the world, in a Revolution that abolished monarchy for what became the United States. But somehow a lot of Americans L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-62600819455843407622011-04-10T23:59:00.003-04:002011-04-11T03:40:34.432-04:00Voicing Liberal Views, Explaining Liberal Ideas. A Liberal's work is never done. Again today I spent some time answering the idiotic propaganda of the Radical Right in the comments area of a story on AOL News, "White House: Obama to Lay Out New Spending Plan to Cut Deficit". The following 149 comments, comprising about 8,000 words, speak to a number of different issues that a lot of people L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-48463740655002145322011-04-09T13:46:00.006-04:002011-04-09T14:11:08.262-04:00Unfinished Business in Egyptian Revolution. A story on AOL News addressed violence by the Egyptian military against a crowd in Tahrir Square who want the head of the military removed from power. Not surprisingly, the anti-Moslem, anti-Obama crowd of Radical Right propagandists descended upon the comments area following that story. So I countered some of their vicious propaganda. I present below L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-44014137170200128062011-03-29T23:59:00.018-04:002011-03-30T07:21:46.863-04:00(Note: Blogger, the Google blogging service, has gone crazy and wiped out all my paragraphs in much of this post. I have tried to restore them. Blogger has destroyed my changes. I don't know what is wrong with the geniuses at Google that they allow Blogger to destroy users' formatting. Usually, Blogger puts in extra spaces between paragraphs, and takes out non-breaking spaces between words. Now, L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-16585124848967046482011-03-24T23:59:00.006-04:002011-03-25T20:01:00.906-04:00More Liberal Parries. An AOL News article today about criticism that President Obama is getting on his return from his Latin America trip brought out the Radical Right lynch mob that descends on any AOL News story about President Obama, or that is not even about Obama but into which they can drag him. I don't know how large a group of Radical Right propagandists are involved in this attempt to L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-30063573012697817562011-03-19T20:24:00.008-04:002011-03-19T21:20:23.239-04:00Answering the RadRite, Again. I was feeling combative today, so devoted a few hours to reading the comments after a story on AOL falsely titled "How Obama's Budget Proposal May Increase Your Taxes Next Year". I was disgusted by the arrant nonsense and flagrant dishonesty of the Radical Right liars there, so left a bunch of comments of my own to try to achieve some balance against the RadRite L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-54348128044826603462011-03-17T19:32:00.002-04:002011-03-17T19:37:40.147-04:00Media Monomania. If you aren't interested in the Japan earthquake/nuclear-power-plant story, there is little reason to turn on the network news, because pack-journalist monomania has shoved every other story in the universe out of the network news. Why is that?+What's happening in Libya? Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain? Wisconsin? Haiti? The economy? Who knows?+New Zealand's recent earthquake is theL. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-475058239428298502011-03-16T23:59:00.000-04:002011-03-19T21:30:31.260-04:00Opposing the Crime of Inaction. I sent this message to the White House by feedback form today.1848 Redux. President Obama, you must not stand idly by to permit the dictators of the Middle East to crush revolutions for democracy. Think about this. In 1848, there were many liberal revolutions in Europe that were crushed by the monarchies of the day. But what if those revolutions had succeeded? L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-32181790162743719742011-03-03T20:57:00.002-05:002011-03-03T21:18:15.041-05:00Obama: Qaddafi Must Go. The Radical Right was out in force in a comments area of a story on AOL News about President Obama's saying it's time for Muammar Qaddafi to step down. So I replied to a bunch of those comments, and present below 56 of them, totaling 2,000 words of argumentation that other people may want to use for their own battles against RadRite loonsActually, Obama DID say Mubarak L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-42141845568935712402011-03-02T21:45:00.004-05:002011-03-02T22:02:10.929-05:00Which Jews Killed Jesus? AOL News hilited a story about a new book by Pope Benedict XVI ostensibly clarifying the Vatican II teaching that "the Jews" as a group did not kill Jesus. That story elicited a bunch of comments, and I added the 19 below.The Jews kept rebelling, which caused Rome a lot of trouble and expense, and dead soldiers. The Gospels are clear that Pontius Pilate LITERALLY washed L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-13752238923892274142011-02-26T23:59:00.005-05:002011-03-01T08:16:38.171-05:00Argumentation for Liberal Opponents of Abortion. AOL News had a story today, "From New York to Midwest to South, Abortion Battle Heats Up". I left the following 78 comments (about 4,100 words) and recommend that Liberals who are appalled at the mindless support for abortion that Liberals are supposed to endorse, read my argumentation to sharpen their own.There is no right of murder.***Abortion onL. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-39294998885593867222011-02-25T23:59:00.005-05:002011-03-01T08:53:53.156-05:00Some Thoughts on Libya. I left some comments at an article on AOL News, "US Closes Libya Embassy, Freezes Gadhafi Assets", today. I think there were more than the 29 I show below. The word-processing program into which I copied my comments, WordPerfect 11, has been crashing several times a day recently. I don't know why. So I may have lost some comments I hadn't stored.Libya is 97% Sunni, and itsL. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-84306062920103717962011-02-23T23:59:00.010-05:002011-02-24T09:02:58.093-05:00More Ammunition for Liberals. An AOL News story about President Obama's statements on Libya, February 23rd,brought out the usual rabid anti-Obama, Radical Right loons, posting comments at the end of that story. I counterattacked on a range of topics related not just to Libya but also to foreign policy more generally and even domestic policy dragged into the discussion by the RadRiters. I present,L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-25853068200574246392011-02-21T19:19:00.002-05:002011-02-21T19:46:57.536-05:00Time to Remove Qaddafi. Muammar Qaddafi is slautering unknown, but large, numbers of his own people in an attempt to hold onto power for more than the 40 years of tyranny he has already inflicted on his people — a reign of terror that has reached out to kill thousands of miles from Libya, including Berlin, Germany and Lockerbie, Scotland. It's time for the United States to remove him and liberateL. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-34680927826736080742011-02-16T16:34:00.001-05:002011-02-16T16:35:53.095-05:00Censorship by AOL. AOL's "comments moderation" has gotten out of hand. After I attempted to post a few comments to a story about Michele Bachmann blasting Michelle Obama for promoting breast feeding, I was apparently barred from even rating other people's comments. But AOL is so cowardly that instead of putting up an error message, "Your screen name is barred from commenting or voting here L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-79665108329394278952011-02-15T03:13:00.004-05:002011-02-15T03:25:01.823-05:00Fiting Rightwing Crazies Again A Liberal's Recreation. A story on AOL News about "Five Programs Obama Wants to Terminate" in his new budget brought out a lot of the Radical Right crazies who haunt AOL's comments areas. I was feeling combative, so struck back over the course of several hours, mostly while watching television in the background. Many diverse topics were addressed, so my comments L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-74698916408297482912011-02-07T22:50:00.001-05:002011-02-07T22:50:55.416-05:00Exchange on Egypt. A colleague in northern England sent me this email comment about the problems in Egypt.It's not just incompetent government which hobbled the Egyptian economy, it was also a defective culture.Egypt is saddled with a huge corrupt government bureaucracy, because many Egyptians view becoming a civil servant (rather than becoming a successful capitalist, for example) as the focus L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-45920741852216023022011-02-05T21:52:00.008-05:002011-02-05T22:53:41.489-05:00Obama Must Side with the People of Egypt. I left the following comments at an AOL News story about President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton backing away from demanding "President" Mubarak step down now.Siding with a dictator has gotten us into a lot of trouble in a lot of places. There is a succession law in place in Egypt, designed to provide stability when the President (dictator, in thisL. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-46033249888841756502011-02-03T15:33:00.002-05:002011-02-03T15:38:36.291-05:00Crazy Praise of Our Faux President, Ronald Reagan. A puff piece hilited today on AOL as "Why We Still Love Reagan", grotesquely exaggerated the virtues and downplayed the faults of our first imitation President, the actor Ronald Reagan. I was pleased to see that the comments after that story did not go along with that article's version of events, and I added this comment:Ronald Reagan was never L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-32660501993896363792011-02-02T20:49:00.002-05:002011-02-02T20:58:57.969-05:00Hey hey! Ho ho! Hosni Mubarak Has Got to Go! That's my little offering to the anti-Mubarak demonstrators in Egypt, an English-language chant to reach the world. Of course, I have no way to get that message to the people of Egypt, given the substantial shutdown of connections to the outside world committed by the illegitimate regime of "President" Mubarak.+Now Mubarak is unleashing goons to L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-33030839955873221282011-01-29T20:00:00.003-05:002011-01-29T20:14:07.897-05:00M&A Madness. Comcast cable company was permitted by the FCC to take over the NBC television network and its Universal Studios/theme parks subsidiary. The merger went into effect this week. I left this comment at an AOL News story about that acquisition.Here again we have major corporations wasting money on mergers and acquisitions that accomplish NOTHING of value to society. BILLIONS of dollars L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-89214642427519569442011-01-28T05:16:00.004-05:002011-01-28T05:43:32.860-05:00Morality and Practicality in Capital Punishment. I was intrigued by an odd story ("End of Lethal Injection Drug in US Leaves Death Penalty in Flux") on AOL News on Tuesday about capital punishment being hampered by the artificial shortage of one drug used in lethal injections because the Government of Italy dares to forbid the export of that chemical if it would be used in lethal injections. It L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-24865516294886343872011-01-27T21:40:00.000-05:002011-01-27T21:41:10.421-05:00Punishing Reckless Driving — Onscreen. Hollywood has been teaching people to drive irresponsibly from the very beginning of film and TV production on the West Coast. Hollywood teaches drivers to take their eyes off the road for extended periods, while driving, to talk to their passengers — even to the point of turning around to look at people in the backseat! Rarely, or never, is there any L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-19621474620601034562011-01-26T18:06:00.009-05:002011-01-26T19:08:37.880-05:00Extending Life, Ending Life. An email acquaintance from Thailand, who used to live in my part of New Jersey and contacted me in relation to my Newark USA fotoblog, sent me link to an interesting, and dismaying, story on BBC News about research into slowing and even reversing the aging process. That story addresses some of the concerns that success in that field could produce, but not some of my L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-35734495009286973802011-01-22T19:10:00.005-05:002011-01-22T19:20:52.886-05:00Evict Congressional Squatters. The CBS Evening News tonite discussed a bunch of Tea Party Republicans stating their intention to live in their Congressional office. It is a Congressional OFFICE Building, not dormitory. There is no right to turn it into substandard housing. The offices don't have showers, and shouldn't; and the U.S. Government must not be a slumlord. The space these squatters wantL. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-92039217078388623022011-01-21T19:17:00.001-05:002011-01-21T19:17:38.087-05:00Record Cold Is "Global Warming"! There is no end of madness and doublespeak in media today. ABC's World News actually said today that the reason our winter is so severely cold is "global warming". That's right: they actually said that it is COLDER because of global WARMING. There are words for assertions like that: "madness", "insanity", "lies", and "garbage" are among them.+No matter how cold itL. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-19679588943598952282011-01-17T19:47:00.002-05:002011-01-17T19:48:28.326-05:00Catfish Treason. A report on NBC Nitely News this evening about American catfish farmers being put out of business indicates that the United States Government is at least passively conniving with Communist China and Vietnam to destroy the American catfish farming industry. Why? When did the U.S. Government come to regard the people of Communist China and Communist Vietnam as its first priority, L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-12079093489478588982011-01-14T20:32:00.006-05:002011-01-14T20:46:19.900-05:00Palin's Giveaway Grimaces. In a video decrying the blame rightly directed at the extremist rhetoric of the Radical Right for inciting unstable people to kill politicians they disagree with, Sarah Palin says, in part:No one should be deterred from speaking up and speaking out in peaceful dissent. And we certainly must not be deterred by those who embrace evil and call it good.What exactly is THAT L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-57593886324261478232011-01-12T22:01:00.005-05:002011-01-12T22:11:28.176-05:00Live with the Consequences. One of the reasons this country has such a huge problem with health care for all is that we have tens of millions of willful morons doing things they know can kill them, but expecting the rest of us to pick up the tab for their healthcare when, for instance, 20 years of smoking tobacco gives them lung cancer, or when a motorcyclist without a helmet has an accident thatL. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-69608905199635888632011-01-07T18:20:00.011-05:002011-01-08T15:14:57.710-05:00Original Constitution Not Read. On the second day of the new Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, including at least one Democrat from my state, New Jersey, read the entire text of the present, legally functioning Constitution (that is, all parts that had not subsequently been voided by amendment).The decision in part will allow members to avoid reading less pleasant sections, like the L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-37279592352788323102011-01-05T15:54:00.003-05:002011-01-05T15:57:54.302-05:00Conspiracy Theories on Wildlife Die-Offs. AOL News had a story today about unexplained die-offs of wild birds and fish, perhaps from severe winter weather, that irritated me in using Celsius — only — for a mention of temperature. I read some comments to see if anyone else mentioned that, then added my objection too.Never should foreign measures be used for unfamiliar items (3 liter bottle, fine) L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-38384470778978433892010-12-28T17:48:00.001-05:002010-12-28T17:50:59.509-05:00Abolishing the Filibuster. Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico was on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann (actually, without KO, last nite; Sam Seder hosted). Udall was there to discuss the will of the Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate to reform the rules of the Senate to mitigate in some measure the destructive and obstructive effects of both the filibuster and secret "holds", a 'Senatorial L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-9927402552192797132010-12-23T17:50:00.001-05:002010-12-23T17:50:23.353-05:00How Long Must We Wait for an End to DADT? Tho President Obama claimed yesterday to have repealed Bill Clinton's odious "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, that policy is in fact still in place today, and could be for many months, or even years. Had Obama just allowed the Federal court ruling that invalidated DADT as unconstitutional to take effect without challenge from the "Justice" Department, the L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-82330965381937618752010-12-21T16:08:00.002-05:002010-12-21T16:11:38.298-05:00Starve Dr. Phil. On today's show, psychologist Phil McGraw deliberately wasted HUNDREDS of pounds of food to demonstrate the excesses of a guest couple's food intake. He dumped sugar, condensed milk, butter, and shortening into an enclosure, as public spectacle. I don't imagine that any of that food was thereafter consumed by anyone. Is he insane? Malicious? Or just appallingly ignorant of how L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-26794126075948870562010-12-11T23:59:00.000-05:002010-12-12T14:58:51.652-05:00Bernie's Booboo. Independent, socialist U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders made a stupid, stupid, unforgivably stupid mistake when he spoke to an EMPTY Senate chamber on Friday, interfering with NO Senate business, in opposition to the surrender over taxes on the rich by Barack the Faithless. What the hell was that 8-hour TV show supposed to accomplish? None of his colleagues listened. No legislation L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-71386794834088864042010-12-10T17:42:00.001-05:002010-12-10T17:44:27.529-05:00If It's Economic and Political Civil War We Need, Then Let Us Have Economic and Political Civil War. The rich have been waging an unresisted war against the middle class and poor for 24 years, ever since the Plutocratic Revolution of 1986 (formally known as the Tax Reform Act of 1986). They have achieved a massive redistribution of wealth from the poor and middle class to the rich, all the while L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-20971760422092918272010-12-09T14:25:00.000-05:002010-12-09T14:26:10.609-05:00Forging Alliances, Left/Right. I am hugely indignant at Barack the Faithless selling us out again, this time regarding tax cuts for the rich, and am heartened by resistance from Liberals, who must, unlike the President, fite for principle. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has stated his intention to filibuster, if need be, to stop Obama's betrayal of the American people.+Sanders is a democratic L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-84770013965593675022010-12-06T12:49:00.002-05:002010-12-06T12:54:11.232-05:00Never Co-Conspire in Evil. I saw Senator John Kerry on TV over the weekend being adamant about not extending tax cuts for the rich. You may recall that he was the Democratic nominee for President in 2004, so he should have the leadership qualities that can make a difference in the shameful behavior of the Democratic Party's current President. So I sent him, today, the following message via L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-76221053160451442542010-12-01T22:52:00.002-05:002010-12-01T22:54:10.128-05:00Obama's Re-election Prospects. America Online today published an opinion piece by one Bob Lehrman comparing Bill Clinton's maneuvers to get re-elected, to what President Obama may do to achieve his own re-election. ("Hope, and Change, Ahead for Obama") Much to my surprise, that piece did not elicit the usual hundreds or even thousands of vicious anti-Obama comments that most articles on AOL do, L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-56755927187415572912010-11-29T13:27:00.002-05:002010-11-29T13:31:03.572-05:00Fiting RadRite Loons, Again. Last Friday I spent many hours reading thru and answering the crazies on an AOL story about President Obama's basketball injury. The vile, racist trash that AOL permits is inexcusable. And a little coterie of Radical Right loons treats AOL comments boards as their own private chatroom for racist and insanely childish and irrelevant matters, including personal taunts L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-17758200819516914472010-11-18T00:01:00.002-05:002010-11-18T00:01:03.133-05:00Don't "Reform" the Filibuster. Destroy It. Keith Olbermann on the cable public-affairs program Countdown November 15th discussed with Chris Hayes of The Nation magazine proposals to reduce the number of votes needed to end a filibuster. I was, as usual, disgusted that Olbermann and Hayes did not simply say that the filibuster is unconstitutional and can be ended by any Vice President. So I sent L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-41420959502737458122010-11-17T00:01:00.001-05:002010-11-17T00:01:00.893-05:00The Poison Pills in Obamacare. Barack Obama's sad need to be loved by everybody, which derives from his biracial family background and his determination to win over everybody on both sides of the (racial, and now political) divide, caused him to compromise away the essence of a law to create universal healthcare. He surrendered — not compromised: surrendered — on single-payer coverage paid for L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-2740766373969909572010-11-16T20:47:00.002-05:002010-11-16T20:51:00.346-05:00Email to Senator Schumer. I am ticked off at Senator Charles ("Chuck") Schumer of New York for proposing to raise the cutoff for tax-cut renewal to $1 million. So I sent him this note via feedback form at his website today.Are you out of your mind? You JUMP from letting taxes rise on people who make $250,000 a year, to letting them rise only on people who make over a MILLION dollars a year? Why L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-70566958348165231472010-11-15T00:10:00.002-05:002010-11-29T14:13:18.251-05:00Fiting Tax Cuts for the Rich. I emailed Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, my own Representative and Senators in Congress, and the President — all by feedback form at their websites — to try to give them some backbone in fiting FOR the poor and middle class, and AGAINST the rich. This is the message I sent to members of Congress.Please do NOT compromise on L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-55868810621410559972010-11-14T00:01:00.003-05:002010-11-14T00:01:01.563-05:00Turning Back Time. In case you still don't understand that the Sarah Palin/Tea Party Republicans are out of their mind, I just yesterday got around to watching a podcast of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann from November 4th. It showed a SarahPAC commercial in which Palin says, "This is our morning, in America", and the sun is shown moving behind the Statue of Liberty. Unfortunately, the sunL. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-3741925534808858642010-11-13T12:58:00.005-05:002010-11-13T13:09:01.433-05:00Butchering the English Language. There have recently come into vogue two odious mispronunciations of long-established English words, "Chile" and "Chilean". As with "Nicaragua" some years back, some people in media insist on Spanicizing these words, as tho they speak Spanish and don't know the proper English pronunciation. So instead of the correct chíl.ee and chíl.ee.yan, it's all of a sudden L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-61979145034464747122010-11-09T23:59:00.003-05:002010-11-10T05:24:16.880-05:00Barack the Faithless Refuses to Prosecute. Yet again, the Obama Administration has decided to actively co-conspire in the crimes of its predecessor. This time, it refuses to prosecute the people who destroyed videotapes of illegal interrogations/torture authorized by the Bush Administration.+Voters could not punish Barack the Faithless directly on November 2nd. Instead, they struck out at L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-41551126265748483682010-11-05T19:36:00.004-04:002010-11-05T19:44:25.234-04:00Olbermann Suspended?! The cable network MSNBC has, insanely, suspended its greatest star, Keith Olbermann, for making LEGAL contributions to three Congressional campaigns, in violation of "newsroom policies". Putting aside for the moment the question of whether Olbermann's show, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, is a news show or a commentary program to which "newsroom" policies are irrelevant, L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-17143808724889034492010-11-03T23:59:00.010-04:002010-11-04T20:00:52.532-04:00The Good with the Bad. Yesterday's election may prove a very bad thing for the Nation, but not all of the results were bad. Three megamillionairesses LOST, despite pouring a collective $210 million of their own money into their campaigns. Linda McMahon, the crotch-kneeing harpie in Connecticut, lost $45M of her own money in her failed effort to become a U.S. Senator (Senatress?). Carly Fiorina L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-4818862175337223312010-11-01T19:43:00.006-04:002010-11-01T20:03:57.851-04:00Dissuading Islamist Terrorists. To the extent that any terrorist is persuaded to kill himself by promises of being met in Paradise by 72 virgins waiting to be ravished (in heaven!), we can counteract that appeal by making complete CASTRATION -- removal of testes and penis before execution the punishment for attempted mass murder. How are you going to enjoy 72 virgins with no genitals, fool? L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-30211975118510141692010-10-30T23:59:00.009-04:002010-10-31T00:32:28.301-04:00Fiting RadRite Loons, Again. AOL News covered a minor scandal in Ohio:A handful of McDonald's employees in northeastern Ohio received handbills in their most recent paychecks suggesting they vote for three Republican candidates."If the right people are elected we will be able to continue with raises and benefits at or above our present levels," the insert said. "If others are elected we will not.L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-82904234613593249492010-10-28T00:01:00.001-04:002010-10-28T06:50:11.106-04:00O'Reilly's 'Muslim Problem' Idiocy. Fox News pundit Bill O'Reilly asserted on Don Imus's Fox radio show Tuesday that the problem with Islam is not extremists but Moslems generally:So you assume the good Muslims outnumber the bad Muslims 10:1. That's usually the ratio on any group. Well, 10:1 overwhelms. So if the good Muslims in Pakistan and Afghanistan would join with NATO and the U.S.A., there L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-79848985774614297582010-10-28T00:00:00.000-04:002010-10-28T00:00:07.283-04:00Brownshirt Party. It has happened again. Staffers of a Tea Party candidate for U.S. Senate have attacked someone physically. The first time, thuggish security guards, including two active-service military who did not have permission to take any such job, roughed up and handcuffed a reporter in a public school in Alaska at which Tea Party loon Joe Miller was speaking. Now, crowd-control security L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-26090861848354981872010-10-27T14:26:00.016-04:002010-10-27T14:57:02.375-04:00Crushing Tea-Party Republicanism. Democrats have done an astoundingly inept job of alarming the electorate about the insane regression the Republicans are trying to carry off this year. It's not about "fiscal responsibility" or "restoring democracy" or any other legitimate idea they hide behind. It's about undoing the 20th Century and returning us to "the good old days" of robber barons, 72-hour L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-42070659815358431632010-10-26T23:59:00.009-04:002010-10-27T17:09:21.392-04:00Immigration Control Is Not (Necessarily) Racist. Again, I am irritated that fellow Liberal Keith Olbermann of MSNBC's news/analysis program Countdown, is just plain wrong about something. This time he is asserting that Rightwing nutjob Sharron Angle's most recent campaign ad (for U.S. Senator from Nevada) is racist. He then showed that ad in its entirety so we might judge for ourselves. Alrite. L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-56391954622519748702010-10-19T21:09:00.004-04:002010-10-20T01:52:04.436-04:00"Horserace" Horsesh*. The major television networks are, as usual, harassing the public with useless coverage of the "horserace" aspect of the midterm elections two weeks hence. Instead of focusing on the issues and the qualifications of candidates, pretty much everything is about polls and projections, speculation about turnout, and other useless and nearly worthless things. Why should we even L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-44170899796423872462010-10-15T15:06:00.007-04:002010-10-16T01:27:17.497-04:00More Colorful Billboards or Mailers for Democrats (with .PDF). My colleague in northern England thought these would have more impact. I initially thought, when he proposed coloring the graffics red for Republicans and blue for Democrats, that he meant only a thicker, more prominent outline map. Here's what he actually meant, and supplied for use here.Being poor, on Social Security, I always thinkL. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-1456400808644461332010-10-13T18:49:00.006-04:002010-10-14T16:11:56.448-04:00Billboards for Democrats.Use the two together, side-by-side or GOP on top, Dems on the bottom, or just the GOP-China graffic by itself. The two could be amplified by "GOP = Made in China" (or "Communist China") and "Democrats = Made in USA".+Billboards are a very good way to go, where they are allowed, since they are seen by many people and stay in place for a long time. A simple graffic message L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-68348098873987915552010-10-13T03:57:00.002-04:002010-10-13T04:17:36.915-04:00Democratic Disaster? or Democratic Sweep? I've been puzzled by a contradiction between what was being said a few months ago, and what is being said now. Not long ago, Liberal pundits were declaiming that Republicans have been so intent on pandering to their racist and reactionary base that they have antagonized every other part of the electorate, and thus risked total annihilation at the polls, L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-58475755880410598572010-10-12T05:02:00.000-04:002010-10-12T05:04:40.139-04:00Jews Against Gays — Who Wins? Who Loses? MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann last nite showed extended video clips, first of New York Tea Party-Republican Candidate for Governor Carl Paladino (an adulterer) blasting homosexuals in the presence of monstrously hideous, inbred (who else would have them?), Hassidic Jews, with silly hats on their heads, ringlets down around their faces, long beardsL. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-68129573520222956552010-10-08T18:25:00.000-04:002010-10-08T18:26:26.278-04:00Not Strong Enuf, Not Targeted Enuf — Not Patriotic / Xenophobic Enuf. Keith Olbermann on MSNBC's Countdown last nite pointed out a new, grave problem in American democracy: the influence of unregulated foreign money in trying to buy American elections. His guest, a union spokesman (Leo Gerard of the United Steelworkers of America — not of India, China, nor any other place), put the lie to the L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-88194941225885709672010-10-03T16:37:00.007-04:002010-10-09T22:13:27.339-04:00The Bigger They Are, the Harder They Fall? Jews in positions of power in the U.S. have taken another step toward what is either total takeover of the United States or a disastrous backlash, in firing Rick Sanchez of CNN for saying what everyone knows: that Jews dominate major media. In firing him, they proved his point beyond contention. Still, asskissers in media, including the usually honest L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-70402257055480272042010-09-30T23:59:00.001-04:002010-10-01T00:55:53.871-04:00Monsters in Media. I was appalled tonite to see, on two different late-nite shows, hideous, inhuman callousness paraded as "humor".+First, Jay Leno introduced some clown who purported to have made a time machine, in which he traveled back to Ford's Theater on the nite Lincoln was (to be) shot. He sees the President, alive, and realizes he can save him by going over and warning him. Then an L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-59387503819038394492010-09-20T23:59:00.003-04:002010-09-21T01:54:54.207-04:00Clintonian Idiocy: Whitewashing Roofs! Bill Clinton, the pseudo-Democratic former President, was on Letterman tonite, in part to promote the idea that people should whitewash tar roofs all over the Nation, in order to cut air-conditioning bills. Astounding. What a complete jackass he is. In a large portion of the urban areas of the United States where there would be black, flat, tar roofs, most L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-76585343156272521352010-09-18T23:59:00.017-04:002010-09-21T15:22:49.614-04:00Self-Defeating Liberals. I am really ticked off by the current Congressional election cycle, not so much at the GOP as at the POP (the Democratic "Party of Pussies" — tho most of my kitties are nowhere near as timid as Democrats are, but will actually fite if threatened). There are many self-confuting and self-defeating "ideas" out among Democrats. Let's take two, as examples.+(1) The pretense isL. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6781940.post-55964989361507542572010-09-13T12:52:00.006-04:002010-09-20T12:33:44.266-04:00A Few More Comments-Area Remarks (Different Story). I spent a little time adding a comment and responding to other people's comments at a Politics Daily story today, "Congress Returns to Washington With Everything on the Line". A few responses to others' remarks appear below, and my own comment on the story itself appears at the end of this short post. "Comments Moderation" was turned on, so I L. Craig Schoonmakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08630561361466137612noreply@blogger.com