Salt City Sinner

posted 7/31/2012 by the Salt City Sinner It all started (or ended, depending on your point of view) on January 21, 2010, when the Supreme Court   ruled 5 - 4   along the ideological fault line   to declare   corporate and union campaign spending a form of protected speech. The decision - Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission, 558 U.S. 50 (2010), known colloquially as "Citizens United" - was a catastrophic blow to democracy in the United States. It   opened the floodgates   for   corporate money  , and since the ruling, a tidal wave of private funds have swept through American elections, replacing citizens' voices and interests with an even more thoroughly corrupted bought-and-paid-for corporatocracy than previously existed. NPR reported on the 2010 elections: After the astronomical sums of cash thrown into the 2008 campaign, everyone's pumping in even more - about 10 to 15 percent more - according to Kip Cassino, vice pres...

posted 7/30/2012 by the Salt City Sinner Andrew Breitbart (1969 - 2012) was a professional @$$hole, "media provocateur," cheap shot artist, and generally repellent human being who was very, very good at being very, very bad. Breitbart was one of the   most influential and innovative   members of the new right wing media sphere elite. His contributions to conservative media include a stint at the Drudge Report, the establishment of Breitbart.com, BreitbartTV, the websites Big Government, Big Hollywood, and Big Journalism, and the mentoring of young, startlingly amoral mini-Breitbarts like   James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles  . Breitbart died on March 1, 2012, but his site - and his "values," such as they are - live on. For example: on April 17 of this year, ALEC spoke at the Heritage Foundation's "Bloggers Briefing," an outreach event for the right-wing blogosphere that was livestreamed by BreitbartTV (video   here  ). As the Center for M...

posted 7/27/2012 by the Salt City Sinner Willard "Mitt" "Mittens" Romney is in Great Britain right now, where the 2012 Olympic Games are what we in the character assassination / blog game call "a big deal." Such trips are part of the checklist for anyone running for president in the United States - a quick tour of various foreign lands of major or minor significance is a way for candidates to shore up their foreign policy bona fides, extend a friendly handshake to US allies - it's basically a debutante ball for American politicians stepping onto (or at least trying to step onto) the world stage. It was with some dyspeptic amusement, then, that I watched Willard attempt to step onto stage, and then instead step into  a big, steaming pile of controversy and negative press. Willard was giving your standard trip-abroad interview to Pers Morgan, when he said the following : "There were a few things that were disconcerting, the stories abo...

posted 7/26/2012 by the Salt City Sinner For somewhere between five and ten years now, I have been fascinated by WND , formerly World Net Daily. I've posted more than a few entries about Big Joe Farah and his online mental health clinic, and with good reason .WND is the progenitor and primary past and present promoter of the Obama birth certificate conspiracy, promotes the idea of an American Christian theocracy, routinely cranks out hate speech about Arabs, Muslims, gay people, and pretty much anyone else who doesn't fit their target demographic of old, white, ultra-far-right cranks. Of particular note lately is WND's decision to hire Colin Flaherty as their new Black People Are Scary Correspondent. Flaherty has been cranking out a series of " black mobs attack white people " stories for the last month and a half. WND and Flaherty are also pimping his recent rant, "White Girl Bleed A Lot," which is basically a book-length "black mobs...

posted 7/25/2012 by the Salt City Sinner As I mentioned in my previous entries , this week marks the 29th convention of ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, a high-rolling gang of economic thugs who are meeting - right now, as we speak! - in Salt Lake City to buy themselves some legislators and see their "model legislation" passed into state law. An invaluable resource on this shady crew can be found   here  : ALEC Exposed! in conjunction with Common Cause, People for the American Way, ProgressNow and the Alliance for a Better Utah, has tallied the "model legislation" that ALEC is bringing to Utah, along with the resulting not-so-model legislation proposed, and a who's who of Utah sell-outs and plutocrats who are ALEC members. Seriously, give it a read - it is fascinating and chilling stuff. Today marked the third day of protests held by #OccupySLC's ALEC Welcoming Committee . I could only make it to a few events today, as some of t...

posted 7/24/2012, by the Salt City Sinner Happy Pioneer Day! Patriots of Utah, gather your passel of children close around the green Jell-O and give thanks for our proud antecedents, straining toward the great state of Zion with their overloaded handcarts filled with dreams. Despite the best efforts of various cabals of thieves and jackals, those dreams still persist. One such cabal goes by the name of ALEC, or the American Legislative Exchange Council . ALEC's 39th annual meeting convenes in Salt Lake City this year, and #OccupySLC's ALEC Welcoming Committee is here to greet them. Yesterday, #OccupySLC's ALECWC kicked off a week of protests, teach-ins and fun-packed events of various kinds (you can find the full schedule here ). Last night featured a pot-luck of delightful fruits, veggies, and various vegan treats (well, mostly delightful - say what you want about the merits of an animal-free lifestyle: vegan cheese is nasty as hell , and by extension vega...

posted 7/23/2012 by the Salt City Sinner Who is ALEC? That's a very good question with a very repulsive answer. The Center for Media and Democracy provides this summary of who the American Legislative Exchange Council is and how they operate: "ALEC" has long been a secretive collaboration between Big Business and "conservative" politicians. Behind closed doors, they ghostwrite "model" bills to be introduced in state capitols across the country. This agenda - underwritten by global corporations - includes major tax loopholes for big industries and the super rich, proposals to offshore U.S. jobs and gut the minimum wage, and efforts to weaken public health, safety, and environmental protections. Although many of these bills have become law, until now, their origin has been largely unknown. According to ALEC's FAQ : The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit [ HA! - ed. ] organization. It provides ...

posted 7/20/2012 by the Salt City Sinner Early this morning at the opening of Batman: The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado, a bloodthirsty lunatic named James Eagan Holmes threw tear gas grenades into the theater and then opened fire , killing twelve and injuring more than 40 people. Eagan was apprehended in the parking lot of the theater; he brought a gas mask, bulletproof vest, rifle, shotgun, and two pistols to his private murder party. His actions were abominable and Aurora is still in shock from today's tragedy. That hasn't stopped a few ghoulish individuals from attempting to make ideological gold from lead, however. One friend of mine on Facebook barely waited for the blood to dry before swooping in on the wings of a vulture: Current TV didn't waste any time either: One commenter on Current TV's Facebook hit the nail on the head, in my opinion: Elderly Caucasian plutocrat and nanny-stater Michael Bloomberg (declared Mayor of New York ...

posted 7/19/2012 by Crazypoliticos "What the fu..."  Suddenly, I'm wide awake.  The amber lit digital display on my clock radio reads "3:02 AM".  Summer is standing above me yelling "Wake up Gerald!  For God's sake!" "Jesus Summer, alright I'm awake.  Stop yelling.  You'll wake up the neighbors, I'll get evicted."  I'm even more awake now.  "How did you get in here?" I ask. "With this nifty little bogus warrant" she replies.  But she is not her perky self.  She is anxious.  I can tell she is worried...about something. "Summer-it's 3AM for crying out loud.  What do you want?" "Mitt Romney has it!" "Has what, Summer, c'mon I'm tired can't we talk about it tomorrow?" "He has the gun Gerald!"  Her eyes are wild. "What?" She is pensive and yet sharply focused now.  "He has the prototype.  He has the Skunk Works Multivers...

Posted July 18 by: ViewFinder Shall I spoil this for you?  NO! I was lucky enough to receive a few tickets to the pre-screening of Batman The Dark Night Rises through the local radio station 97.1 ZHT.  After careful discussion I reluctantly chose to take my 9 year old daughter.  I feared this may be a poor decision with the chance of "romance" as is often found to entice the female patrons to such action packed "super hero" type flicks.  Turns out this was not a romance filled adventure, nothing too risque for her 9 year old eyes.     The movie opened HUGE, a very intense scene where we are immediately introduced to the villain of the newest Batman release.   Bane at one point refers to himself as "Gotham's reckoning" telling Batman "When Gotham is ashes you have my permission to die"  For the first time we see Batman meet a physically superior individual which he must continue to battle for the survival of the entire city of Gotha...