Shit that Pissed me off This Week – 9/7

Michele Bachmann is Still from Minnesota

This week, Bachmann suggested that the common American can’t relate to Obama because he’s so rich.

That was certainly an interesting thing to say given that her parties’ nominee is somewhere around one hundred times richer than Obama.  Based on her statement, I would assume that Bachmann believes that Romney is one hundred times more out of touch with the average American than Obama.

I would consider it fair if she’d said that Obama is a little out of touch with the average American because he lives here:

This house is a lot nicer than mine

Bachmann is out of touch with the average American because she is crazy.

Eric Cantor Says Labor Day Celebrates Business Owners

Look, I get that the Republican party doesn’t like unions all that much.  Hell, I think that unions are great up to a point but they don’t always work.

But at the risk of sounding like a socialist (because I am one), the idea of a union is a good one.  I think workers should be able to organize and tell  business owners who get rich on the effort of those they employ that they deserve better working conditions, pay, retirement benefits, etc.

If they can get them, good on them!  There is nothing lazy in spending time and effort to ensure that you can earn a decent wage and have the time to enjoy that wage.

But the Republicans don’t like unions.  Fine.  Still, we have a national holiday devoted to the labor movement.  For one day, could you guys stop the anti-union rhetoric and acknowledge that there are a bunch of people – both union and non-union – who put in a hard day’s work doing all sorts of stuff and they deserve recognition as much as business owners?

Lumberjacks! They labor! You guys love the lumber industry!!!

Seriously, the CEO of Ford doesn’t make the fucking cars.  The owner of the corner gas station couldn’t get it done without a bunch of people pumping and refining fuel.  Target can’t sell you a cheap T-shirt without the cashiers ringing up your order.

Business owners are important but very few of them did this shit alone.  How about giving workers their due one day a year, Mr. Cantor?  Would it kill you?

Asked if He Supports Prayer in Public Schools, Paul Ryan Says “You Bet!”

Dear religious right:  kids are allowed to pray in schools.  Silently.  So the kids who don’t believe in your god don’t have to listen.

When you say prayer in school, you mean Christian prayer.  You mean prayers before graduation and sporting events.

You don’t mean that muslim children should be allowed to pray.  You don’t mean that an Imam should be allowed to pray before a volleyball game.  You want “religious tolerance” of your religion but nobody else’s.

Dear Lord: I know everything will get better if I can just get prayer back into the schools where it belongs!

That ain’t the way it works.  Public school is for everybody and that means you pray on your own time.

Stop pretending you are an oppressed minority just because you can’t ask god to bless your football players over a loudspeaker.

Woman is Verbally Assaulted on Public Transit and Isn’t sure Whether she Should Share the Story

You’ve probably read this one as it has been making the internet rounds.  I’ve seen it re-posted roughly 75,238 times (that was hyperbole for you fact checkers).

At issue here is not what happened to this woman, which sounds horrifying.  The issue is that she wasn’t sure if she should tell the story.

You know why?  I’m speculating here but I’ll bet it was because she expected a bunch of assholes to tell her that she made the story up or she was overreacting or that she probably dressed too sexy or that she should feel bad for treating guys so badly when all they wanted to do was talk to her.  In other words, she fully expected that within a few hours of posting her story, someone would tell her that the whole incident was somehow her fault.

Thank goodness she posted it anyway so those of us who are capable of reading and comprehending what she is talking about can point to it and say “see?  This shit does happen.  It happens all the time.  This is not a manufactured issue.  It is very real and it happens to real people.”

Every Speech at Both Conventions ended with “God Bless America”

It isn’t that I have a problem with a religious politician ending their speech that way so much as I have a problem that all speeches must end that way.  If they don’t end that way, people get called out for it.

“Oh sure,” they say, “Bill Clinton’s speech wasn’t filled with lies the way Paul Ryan’s was but he didn’t thank God at the end!  Clearly he is evil!”

I’m just making that up, by the way, of course Clinton said “God Bless America” at the end of his speech.  He’s not a moron.

This guy is a moron and he wouldn’t forget to say “God Bless America.” That’s probably all he would say.  Over and over again. For an hour.

Because only a moron would leave that statement off the end of their speech.  If anyone did leave it off, theirs would be the speech that dissed God instead of the speech that – you know – talked about important stuff.

Someone Explain to me Again why Bristol Palin is Relevant

Is “Palin” becoming one of those political names like “Kennedy” or “Bush” that result in people listening to what you have to say even if it is not the least bit worthwhile?  Bristol, in this case, was complaining about the following button from the Democratic National convention:

Hm…probably an acronym for something.

Bristol’s complaint is that we need to have more dignity in our politics.  Never mind that this button is a call out to the Slutwalk movement and it is meant to empower and dignify rather than the opposite.

Clearly the Republicans are only producing classy buttons and that is why Palin has such a problem with this one, right?

D’oh!

But we all knew I could find button slogans like that, right?  We also know that a lot of these are jokes and even though I’m a Democrat, I think the Jackass button above is actually pretty funny.

Why do we care what Bristol says anyway?  Is it because of who her mother is?

Of course it is.  The grande dame of the Palin clan wants to keep her family in the public eye and Bristol is more than willing to help.

As an entertainer, I like attention as much as the next guy.  More, actually.  I’d like to think I do something to earn it.

Judge Blames the Victim of Sexual Assault During the Sentencing

So yeah, this happened.

Anybody wonder why women have a hard time reporting sexual assault?  Maybe it is because even when they win, they get told it was their fault.

What did the judge say in this case?

If you wouldn’t have been there that night, none of this would have happened to you

Hear that ladies?  Stay the fuck home because when you leave the house, you are just begging for a sexual assault.

It’s like you are giving off pheremones and us guys are completely helpless to resist.  Curse you vile females for forcing us to sexually assault you!