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By Mark D, July 23, 2012 10:48 pm

So as you might expect, I am a registered voter who tends to vote in every election. I recently moved from one county to another, and the other day got a letter in the mail from the county board of elections. Since I had filled out a mail forwarding address with the post office, they had my new address. What did this letter say? Quite simply that if I was no longer living at my former address, I would be purged from the voter rolls.

That’s pretty much it. No offer to forward my information to the board of elections in my new area. No new voter registration form that I could full out and send in to update my registration. Nothing at all helpful about the form they sent me, other then confirming to them that I live at my new address. This is a joke and is horrible in this day and age with the internet and about a million different ways to possibly have me update my info.

Add that to the fact that PA is one of the states that have created the strictest laws requiring Voter ID (to combat the non-existent voter fraud) at the booth now. I happen to be lucky, in that despite not having a drivers license (or an ability to get a State ID due to transportation problems) I do have a Passport. But trust me, it wasn’t exactly easy, especially since I don’t have a way to get around. I mostly had to rely on friends and family to get me around to places and get the stuff I needed.

All of this because all that happened was that my former roommate took my license when they moved out by accident and could never find it. My car was already dead, and when I got a friend to take me to replace the license in PA, they wouldn’t until I handed in my Jersey license which I couldn’t get or replace. So getting a license has been fun to say the least.

I can see how a lot of people can have trouble getting IDs just to vote. Of course voters who don’t have IDs skews largely to the minority and poor voters. Ironically for me, most of the places I needed to get to to get a Drivers License are nowhere near mass transit. You’d think they would try to build these places closer to Mass Transit hubs so people who don’t drive could get to them easier.

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By Mark D, April 12, 2012 12:42 am

Well that comes as shocking news for me, the democrats are finally fighting back? The sad thing is that saying something this ridiculous normally would have cost you your seat. No one would have ever taken this seriously, he would have been laughed out. But now, it’s believed as much as if he would have said that Barack Obama is secretly importing Muslims over the border in order to make the USA an Islamic state.

Stupidity and ignorance are gaining steam like ever before. If you ever say something that the right doesn’t agree with, your automatically considered brainwashed by the “Liberal Media”. The same “Liberal Media” which is almost completely in the pocket of our corporate overlords. Look, if anyone is waging class warfare, it’s the rich. The amazing thing about it is that as more services get cut and a lot of those cuts come from Education, the larger part of the population which becomes blissfully ignorant.

The answers to all their problems will always be the simple ones. It’s the illegal immigrants that take their job. It’s evil progressive programs that lead to them being taxed. Everyone hates America because of it’s freedom. Minorities are ruining the country. It’s the Second Age of the Know Nothings, but even more abrasive and nowhere near ashamed of their stance.

Hopefully in time things will change, and people will start moving forward again. They will look back in embarrassment as the Neo-Cons try to turn back a century of forward thinking. Let’s go back to the time before the scopes monkey trial. Let’s get rid of everything that is in the slightest bit socialist slanted. Good bye Child Labor Laws, 40 hour work weeks,  unemployment benefits.

We are talking about stuff that we gained through tough Union fighting during the great depression. Republicans have endlessly campaigned to destroy the New Deal. For what gain? Everytime another section of the new deal is destroyed, it is everyone at the bottom of the pyramid that is hurt. The amazing thing is that the people on the bottom don’t even realize they are the ones getting screwed.

I still can’t believe that this guy is going to get a bunch of press, but no one is going to bring up that he is obviously insane and should be tossed out on his ass. Yes I realize that this post in uninspired.

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By Mark D, December 28, 2011 6:29 am

The speech had been proceeding for perhaps twenty minutes when a messenger hurried on to the platform and a scrap of paper was slipped into the speaker’s hand. He unrolled and read it without pausing in his speech. Nothing altered in his voice or manner, or in the content of what he was saying, but suddenly the names were different. Without words said, a wave of understanding rippled through the crowd. Oceania was at war with Eastasia! The next moment there was a tremendous commotion. The banners and posters with which the square was decorated were all wrong! Quite half of them had the wrong faces on them. It was sabotage! The agents of Goldstein had been at work! There was a riotous interlude while posters were ripped from the walls, banners torn to shreds and trampled underfoot. The Spies performed prodigies of activity in clambering over the rooftops and cutting the streamers that fluttered from the chimneys. But within two or three minutes it was all over. The orator, still gripping the neck of the microphone, his shoulders hunched forward, his free hand clawing at the air, had gone straight on with his speech. One minute more, and the feral roars of rage were again bursting from the crowd. The Hate continued exactly as before, except that the target had been changed.

And so most American troops leave Iraq. But the lesson is already forgotten by the American public. Iraq joins a long list of wars in which we took part on false pretenses. The Spanish American War (USS Maine) and as a offshot the occupation of the Philippines, the Vietnam War and First Iraq War were all started because of lies. But the war drums started beating and everyone fell into line. No one asked questions, no one backed off the ledge despite one of the biggest anti-war demonstrations around the world at the time.

The time will come again that we will invade and occupy some country, and no one will bat an eye. The drums will beat, the talking heads will talk, and before we know it we’ll be in a war. When someone asks even the simplest questions like how it will be paid for? or just how a weapon of mass destruction could reach the mainland of the United States? The answer will be why aren’t you patriotic?

Even the “opposition” will fall into line and rally behind the flag. The questions will be unanswered, and no one will dare to look behind the curtain. It wouldn’t be supporting the troops if you dared to ask those questions. Forget the fact that some of them will die, some of them will never be able to live the life they had hoped. Forget the fact that thousands of human beings will end up dead. Nope, if you question anything the simple response will just be that your not supporting the troops.

The girl I was dating at the start of the 2nd Iraq War thought I was insane when I was against the war. She thought people were going to try to lynch me for what I was saying. A few years later she admitted all this to me, and admitted she couldn’t believe that I was actually right about so much of it. She thought at the time that Saddam Hussein was moments away from destroying the United States at anytime he wanted. Now she actually listens to me when I start rambling about politics.

It’s almost enough to make me wonder what is being taught in schools. I mean are kids learning that the explosion of the USS Maine was an accident, or just that it was suspicious. Are they told about the yellow journalism of the time and how Hearst wanted to start a war to increase paper circulation? Does it mention the long occupation of the Philippines which lead to the creation of the Anti-Imperalist league and had such highly regarded figures as Mark Twain, Grover Cleveland and Andrew Carnegie among others.

What does it say about the Vietnam War and the Gulf Of Tonkin incident now? With hindsight (and papers which were classified for 30 years) we now know that no incident took place that night. For that matter we know that the American ship in the area a few days before had opened fire on the North Vietnamese torpedo boats. And yet we not only have the loss of life of 50K Americans for no good cause, but a high estimate of nearly 4 million dead all told. For what?

So we look towards Iraq and wonder what the legacy will be. Will people find a way to say that American troops in Iraq somehow helped the Arab Spring? Despite the fact of the matter being that America had propped up most of the dictatorships which were taken down. The debate about the legacy will in the end most likely mask the reality of the situation for those who lived it. No one wants to admit when everything is over and done that their sacrifice was for nothing.

We the people are no better then the Proles in 1984. We will turn on a dime, our friends today will be our enemies tomorrow. Those who point out what is going on behind the curtain will be shouted down and beaten down by the drums. The lies that were used to get us into the war will no longer work. But it doesn’t matter after we’re already there, and the reasons change after the matter. So no longer was it to stop Hussein from having WMDs, but the spread of democracy.

The lies just get bigger and bigger and more blatant every time. If you have not stood up in the past, then when will you take a stand about what’s wrong? Now is the time for people to demand changes within the government. We shouldn’t have to wait 30 years or more for documents to become declassified. We the people are the base of power for the government, it answers to us.

But if we allow our representatives to do whatever they want without consequence, in the end we lose. In the end it is the boot stomping our own faces for eternity. The best part is that it will be the people we continually choose to Represent us. All the facades of democracy will still exist, but it won’t matter as both sides work together. Now is the time, between wars, to work on a lasting and true peace. To let the government know that it won’t get away with lieing to us again.

Over the horizon, the war drums echo their familiar beat…

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By Mark D, August 24, 2011 8:25 pm

It’s sort of like a train wreck, you can’t help but look when the title is Dictator-in-chief Obama and US Congress collaborating to destroy USA? I mean I get a laugh directly from the title. It’s hard to be a Dictator-in-chief when you’ve been elected. That was one of the complaints about Bush following the 2000 election, we don’t know if he really won the election he just ran the better PR campaign after. Gore actually got more votes then Bush, something commonly forgotten. Or you know that the Congress which couldn’t figure out how to raise the debt ceiling is working hand in hand with Obama to destroy the US. But hey, let’s dig into the meat of this article a bit and have some fun.

The facts are now so obvious and blatant that even dyed in the wool Obama sycophants should be able to see and hear the truth. What took the people of this country generations of their blood, toil and sweat to accomplish and build has been destroyed in less than 4 years.

Well, it took Bush less then a year to give huge handouts to Corporations and to totally ignore Bin Laden while vacationing in Crawford. But hey I’m sure if Obama had done any of that you would have given him a break too.

The United States of America has been gutted of its financial resources,

Yes, it was Obama in the last 4 years, and nothing to do with 2 Endless Wars. One war in which Bush lied to us (They have WMDs) to get us in to make his daddy happy. Also Bush NEVER had any plan on how to PAY for the wars. But hey, I’m sure all of this is Obama’s fault.

its people have had their rights to makes their own decisions about their lives (think ObamaCare, the First, Second and Fourth Amendments for starters) rescinded so that Obama and his cabal will decide for them,

Wait, Obama isn’t illegally quartering troops in civilian’s houses? I’m shocked. Look, I’ve already mentioned the Patriot Act (Which here she claims protects the US) and remember it was Bush who made “Free Speech Zones” so popular. Everyday I have to do things I don’t want to do because Obama and his “cabal” (what exactly is his cabal anyway? The ever so powerful Cabinet?”) make me do them. I wake up in the morning, turn on the telescreen and I’m forced to exercise.

US citizens have had their jobs removed and so thoroughly decimated that they must now rely on the fewer and fewer still working and Obama’s good will (an oxymoron if I ever heard one) to survive.

What a plan by Obama, get Bush to ruin the economy and cost thousands of jobs so Obama can win the election and destroy the country. Brilliant! No mention here of the corporations that are making huge profits but refusing to hire anyone still.

And now Obama has decided — as he promised to do but, the leftist elite and enough mentally deficient American voters chose to elect him anyway — to shut down coal (even the refurbished “clean coal” plants) production operations by using his EPA regulation hammer to drive them out of business.

The scary thing is, if she considered the people who voted for Obama mentally deficient, what does she consider the people who voted for Bush twice and McCain with Palin on the ticket. I guess they were the lost intellectuals of the day. Oh and let’s get something straight about Clean Coal, it may sound good, but it’s really not much of a solution. Coal is still “dirty” and still produces CO2 no matter what you do.

Remember that Obama couldn’t get his Cap % Trade through Congress so, he issued a dictatorial fiat. This is completely illegal and unconstitutional but…no one is stopping him.

I guess when Bush pardoned Scooter Libby that was unconstitutional too. Executive Orders are a long term aspect of the Presidential office, and I’m sure all Presidents have used them in a way that have upset people. Hell, the Emancipation Proclamation was an Executive Order. Congress can always overturn executive orders if it wanted to.

We are now living in a dictatorial Police State that is completely lawless — save the laws Obama and his DOJ are making up on the spot as they so choose. And Congress and the leftist courts are doing nothing — whatsoever — to stop it.

Yes, Obama is just making up laws as he goes along because you disagree with him about coal. I must live in a different world in which the Tea Party powered House refused to increase the deficit till the very last second. Obviously congress is doing nothing to stop Obama. And these leftist courts, including the 11th circuit would never vote to overturn Obamacare.

Another problem for that portion of the US electorate who failed to think it through — a problem that now onerously impacts us all — prior to casting their ballots in November 2008 is that nearly 45% of ALL energy produced in the USA is from coal power. The US Energy Information Administration in its “Electric Power Monthly report” (released 16 August 2011) writes: “Year-to-date, coal-fired plants contributed 43.6 percent of the power generated in the United States.” This means — if Congress does not get off its collective derriere and stop the madman and his entourage — there will be not only severe power outages nationwide but, estimated millions may have no power at all for basics such as heating and air-conditioning.

Does this sound like a reality to anyone? That Obama will just cut coal production and not find any replacement sources of energy? This is something that isn’t just done with absolutely no planing. Just a quick look at the Whitehouse website shows that the long term plan is more Renewable energy sources, especially wind. But of course no mention of that here, we’re just going to cut off our arm for the hell of it.

I can’t take reading anymore of this, but I have to pick out this one last line:

Heck, Obama is installing Muslim Brotherhood members as quickly as possible into the US government. Shari’a is only a short step away, folks. YouTube has already started censoring and removing all videos that do not support Islamic worldwide domination.

Oh wait, and here’s another fun part of that:

Note: Remember that the Muslim Brotherhood is the foundation organization that spawned al-Qaeda, Hamas and most other Islamic terrorist groups.

I guess the Muslim Brotherhood which spawned al-Qaeda (the CIA had nothing to do with that?) also helped to take down Osama Bin Laden later? Ironically when I looked at the authors archive there is absolutely no mention of Bin Laden’s  death. It just skips from an article on April 30th to May 11th (Osama was killed on May 2nd).  I would love to see how reality fits into Obama being a part of the Muslim Brotherhood. I would also love to see how Youtube can influence the world on the Muslim Brotherhood. Wouldn’t it make more sense to use national television or something that hits a wider audience?

The amazing thing is, this author, Sher Zieve, has been Chicken Little to the country is falling for OVER 5 YEARS! Take a look at this archive. I guess if you predict the destruction of the United States between now and the end of time, your going to be right at some point.

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By Mark D, July 29, 2011 2:41 pm

Gotta give Wiki (pedia/Media) credit. Last time they were running a campaign they recognized that splattering Jimmy Wales photo all over the place was attracting a ton of bad publicity (quote “This is exactly why we cannot leave Jimbo up for 2 MONTHS”). The laundry list of abuses by Jimmy Wales is amazingly long:

• Using Wiki money to pay for his flights/expenses to personal speaking engagements
• Editing his girlfriends wikipedia entry both while dating and after they broke up
• Editing his former partners wikipedia entry in order to make it seem like he was the sole founder of Wikipedia
• Taking in 5 and 6 figure sums for public speaking engagements, while claiming to make no money from Wiki media/pedia. The only reason people want to talk to him is because he was the cofounder.

Is just a taste. So it’s time to go with someone who can actually relate to the people that work/read Wikipedia instead of a smug douchebag. Ryan Kaldari is the opposite of Jimmy Wales. At least so much as he comes off as a hipster, a gentle person who isn’t about to take your money and waste it.

Even so, the same issues that exist with Jimmy Wales exist with Ryan Kaldari. Wikimedia Foundation is spending far too much money on everything else. For a not-for-profit organaztion, Wikimedia is sitting on more then enough money to allow it to survive for at least 3-4 years. The biggest problem currently? The amount of money the Foundation is sinking into the ever ballooning employee payroll. Hiring 32 people should not cost as much as it does for them.

The reality is that I’ve done these rants at least twice before, you can read the first one and then the second one. I beg you, if your really going to donate money donate it to someone that does good like wikileaks. Also take a trip to Charity Navigator and realize that they give Wikimedia a horrible efficiency review of 26.50. Hell, you’d almost be better off donating money to Encyclopedia Dramatica then Wikimedia.

It ends up after a little more searching I found out this is an ongoing thing. They are comparing different people and wording to Jimmy Wales appeal to see if they can use other people instead of Wales and still get the same amount of donations. If you see any of the ads, I’d say click through them, but donate nothing just to screw with their results.