Bob Lord

Posted by Bob Lord

[My friends at Down With Tyranny just posted this piece I wrote, but I thought I'd post it here as well.] 

Progressives across America have a rare opportunity.

Joe Arpaio, the megalomaniacal sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, is the face of racism in America today. He is facing a well-organized recall campaign. Arpaio has been elected six times, dating back to 1992, by raising zillions of dollars from right-wing ideologues and using the funds to play to the fears of Maricopa’s conservative population base, particularly the fearful senior citizens in the retirement communities west of Phoenix, while smearing his opponents with horrifically deceitful ads. But each election has been a tougher sell for Arpaio than the one before. Last November, he squeaked by with 50.7% of the vote.

Posted by Bob Lord

Chris Hedges has a great post up at Truthdig today. He explains how debt is used by our corporate state to control the working poor.

Workers who are unable to meet their debts, who are victimized by constantly rising interest rates that can climb to as high as 30 percent on credit cards, are far more likely to remain submissive and compliant. Debt peonage is and always has been a form of political control. Native Americans, forced by the U.S. government onto tribal agencies, were required to buy their goods, usually on credit, at agency stores. Coal miners in southern West Virginia and Kentucky were paid in scrip by the coal companies and kept in perpetual debt servitude by the company store. African-Americans in the cotton fields in the South were forced to borrow during the agricultural season from their white landlords for their seed and farm equipment, creating a life of perpetual debt. It soon becomes impossible to escape the mounting interest rates that necessitate new borrowing.

And raising the minimum wage to $11 per hour, the same level as 1968 in real dollars, is the key to breaking the chains of debt peonage.

Posted by Bob Lord

The Wall Street Journal ran this piece by Jonathan Last, a writer at the Weekly Standard, who explains why most of America's ills are attributable to those evil college-educated women who aren't popping out enough pups. You have to read the piece in its entirety to appreciate Last's depravity, but he actually argues that women attending college is a bad thing:

College. Higher education dampens fertility in all sorts of ways. It delays marriage, incurs debt, increases the opportunity costs of childbearing and significantly increases the expense of raising a child. If you doubt that the economics of the university system are broken, consider this: Since 1960, the real cost of goods in nearly every other sector of American life has dropped. Meanwhile, the real cost of college has increased by more than 1,000%.

Get that, women? Don't attend college, because the opportunities a degree will present might cause you not to spend your life raising kids.

Posted by Bob Lord I watched Rachel's show from last night while on the treadmill this morning. She covered our own Senator McRevengeServedSteamingHot's confrontational questioning of Chuck Hagel. The AzBlueMeanie reported on that here, so I needn't repeat the specific coverage. Rachel is really, really smart. But she blew it here. She portrayed McCain's anger … Read more

Posted by Bob Lord So, Huff Po has a post up about a Tennessee man who sought to have his pitbull euthanized because he believed the pup to be gay. He determined this because the dog humped another male dog. The article doesn't disclose the owner's party registration. You can make your guess in the … Read more