Mitt reaches for a new low, and the charter hustle

I am trying to remember if there was ever a slimier and more contemptible poli-trickster who ran for the highest office in the land than Flipper. Honestly, the guy might be worse than Dick Nixon.

He actually thought that it was necessary to try to exploit the situation with that blind dissident in China to score political points.

Just a couple of days ago Flipper said the following:

"If these reports are true, this is a dark day for freedom and it's a day of shame for the Obama administration.... We are a place of freedom, here and around the world, and we should stand up and defend freedom wherever it is under attack." [Source]

Flipper said this while the United States was feverishly trying to negotiate an agreement with the Chinese for the man's exit to the West. Now, as it turns out, all might be well that ends well.  

By running off at the mouth, Flipper and his friends might have caused this man and his family their lives. But the life of some poor blind guy in China who likes to call out his own government is worth nothing to these people. The only thing that matters is power and money, and they will do whatever it takes to get it.

I bet that even poor Chen Guangcheng could see that.

Finally, more evidence that republicans care more about dollars than the lives of the citizens they are supposed to be looking out for. (h/t to Jose Vilson for reminding me to blog about this story)

Here in Pistolvania we are having an educational crisis thanks to the charter school system that has been bought and paid for by special interest groups in Harrisburg. And, in case you were wondering, I am not letting his Oness  and his peeps off the hook, either. Because, they too, seem to be somewhat complicit in this charter school scam that is being perpetrated on the citizens of my state.  

The for profit private charter schools that our governor has been promoting to educate our children have been...wait for it....wait for it... no different, and in some cases, worse than the public schools that they are supposed to be replacing. Having these schools have had a devastating effect on poorer school districts, and because of all the money and influence involved there is no end in sight.

But here is the elephant in the room, and the dirty little secret that no one will talk about: Until we address the real problem with failing schools, which is not the teachers and the school house, but the homes and environment that these little rugrats are coming from; nothing will really change.

I suspect that these hustlers promoting charter schools know this, but sadly, to them, this is just another way to make a dollar. Let's call it the charter hustle.

  



   





 

WWOD?

Early this past Saturday morning (I mean early. It had to be around 7:00AM) I was at a tennis club in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania. I was playing some doubles with three other guys who I play with on a regular basis, and there were two middle aged gentlemen playing on the court right next to us. They seemed to be going at it pretty hard, but I didn't really pay much attention to them because I was too caught up in the my own game.


Now I am a 4.0 player (you tennis "buffs" will know what that means) and the guys I was playing with were 4.0 players and above, as well. So we were getting into it pretty good, and going at each other, when one of the gentlemen I mentioned stepped over to our court and said the following: "Fellows I know this isn't exactly a library, but could you guys keep it down just a little bit in between points, we are trying really hard to concentrate over here." Yep, those were his exact words. Keep in mind, we were playing tennis, not chess. So at this point we are all pretty much stunned, and we kept looking at each other for answers, trying to figure out if the guy was serious. He was. He kept looking at us and was obviously waiting for an acknowledgement that we would in fact tone it down as he requested.

Well, being the big mouth that I am, I told him in no uncertain terms that he had to be fucking kidding, and that we weren't in a library, so his best bet was to just enjoy his game and leave us the fuck alone. Or something to that effect. He stared at me for a second or two, started to say something, but he seemed to think better of it and went back to his game.

One of the guys I was playing with blamed the incident on Obama. "Get used to it guys, now that Obama is president they are going to be mad at us." No, the guy was just an asshole," I told him. "That guy would have told little green men from Mars to keep the noise down." Nope, that was not an Obama backlash; but this is , and so was this, and this.... I could go on, but you get the point. Now I ask you; is this "change we can believe in"?

Folks, all over Omerica there are more and more stories of this kind of "racial backlash" because his O ness is now the commander in chief. But we knew this would happen, didn't we? Not everyone in these divided states is happy about "change" and they are not shy about letting us know about it.


But here is the deal: we shouldn't get too hung up on this crap. Times are hard, people are losing their jobs and their homes in record numbers. These are tough times here in Omerica, and these are the times when people's true racial attitudes and their ignorance will start to show. This is when everyone is fighting for the scraps off the table, and like a pack of dogs they will go after each other for the very last piece. And if they don't get it, the racial scapegoating will begin. This is what we are seeing now.


So since it doesn't look like things are going to get any better anytime soon, I hope we don't over react to every little incident, and I hope that we don't let hearing about incidents like the ones I provided in the various links throw us off of our game.


S0 just what is our game? Well, it's doing everything in our powers to make sure that our boy succeeds. If it means doing more volunteer work, being better role models, and taking more personal responsibility, then so be it. Which, by the way, are all things we should be doing and should have been doing before his O ness became president elect in the first place. But still, we just have to be better citizens. (Ahh field, come on, you swore at the guy, what kind of role model and good citizen were you being?) Yes, I know, and this is why I went and apologized to the guy right after our game......okay, I am lying, he left before our game was over, but thanks to the dawning of the age of O-quarius, I at least thought about apologizing. Still, I have got to keep a cooler head like my boy Obama. What would Obama do? That should be my new motto. Hell, we all should be thinking wwod. The O man would have told the guy something like: Hey man we are sorry, I will see if I can get everyone to take it down just a notch for you. I am sure you are having a tough time concentrating with our over exuberance on display here the way it is.... you gotta love how smooth the guy is. Hell, I bet if he had just a couple of minutes with old Ken Germana he would have had the old coot pulling down his sign, quicker than you can say, change. Ya know, that ole boy Obama ain't so bad after all. He ain't like them other ones. I can salute him as my commander in chief.


Unfortunately, there is only one Obama, so the rest of us citizens out here are going to have to just deal with all of the bullshit on our own. But still, at the end of the day, we will be alright, cooler heads will prevail, they always do. Unless, of course, I happen to be in the group.