Welcome To The United Corporate States Of America

The Senate bill to repeal the oil subsidies to BIG OIL went down in flames last night, thanks to the Senators that were handsomely paid by BIG OIL to the tune of $21 Million. Does ANYONE in this country really believe these Republicans give two shits about Americans anymore? (H/T to Think Progress, click link in title).

... the oil-friendly Senate split 52 to 48 to end the subsidies. Though the majority of the Senate voted to repeal these oil tax breaks, the procedural motion required a 60 vote threshold. An analysis of campaign contribution records shows the gusher of dirty cash that fueled the filibuster:

A Center for American Progress Action Fund analysis finds that the 48 senators who sided with Big Oil received over $21 million in career oil contributions, while 52 senators who sided with the American people received only $5.4 million in contributions. Each senator who voted for Big Oil received on average more than four times as much oil cash as those who voted to end the subsidies.

So, there you have it. First, it used to be that only a MAJORITY in the Senate was required for a bill to pass. But after Bush took over, the Republicans began to slowly shift that watermark to the now infamous standard "filibuster" breaking magic number of 60. Pretty soon, the Republicans will end up with requiring a 100% vote for any legislation to be passed, thus ensuring that nothing gets done unless and until they completely wipe out the existence of any party in politics except the rich Republicans (and the few Blue Dog Democrats that don't have the balls to change parties and show their true red color).

Can anyone tell me what planet these people get their marching orders from? It's so difficult for me to cover these people, the stench oozes from the pages of material I read that I can't even bring myself to finish reading the shit. From Gingrich to Boehner, from Ryan to Cantor, add in all the nut jobs that are governors now, and toss in the idiots that support them in the press (Ben Stein, O'Reilly, "fill in the blank") and you have a boatload of people that support the handful of rich against the majority of NORMAL people. I mean, come on you people in Texas. Cutting teachers because "the budget" needs to be balanced, but putting up $25 Million a year to a handful of millionaires that want Formula One racing? Forget that Formula One LEFT the fucking state years ago, and they don't really want to go back, but that hasn't stopped the governor from using HIS state's tax dollars to give to HIS rich friends (of whom the investors most likely have a combined wealth larger than the state budget as it is) to supplement, SUPPLEMENT, their ill conceived plan (over the next then years, that's $25 Million a YEAR for ten YEARS) to build the racetrack and try to "lure" Formula One back to Texas. That's NASCAR territory, you idiots! And NO, not all car racing is the same. Oh, and gotta love this quote:

With 20 million Texans within 250 miles of Austin and a growing Formula One fan base in Mexico, the city’s annual race will be successful, Steve Sexton, president of track developer Circuit of the Americas LLC, said in a telephone interview.

Got that? MEXICANS? FAN BASE? I thought Texans hated the brown people, but they want to "lure" them across the border to watch rich people race expensive cars? I have to keep slapping myself just to prevent hyperventilating.

I just don't get it anymore. These deals used to be clandestine and made behind closed doors such that you had to dig deep to find shit and get it out in the press. Nowadays, none of these Republicans (and some Democrats) care about the pretense. They just shove their personal rich people loaded agendas on their constituents, leaving them without jobs, without retirement, without unemployment, without homes, without protection, without medical assurance and insurance, and shrug their shoulders as if saying, "what, you don't like this? vote me out, then" knowing full well that in this day and age, an individual's voting right is meaningless. With corporations dictating what the elected people do and making sure "their" people are elected (whether by hook or by crook) and especially now that some of these state leaders are legislating away voting rights (passing ID laws, trying to enact pol legislation [means testing, i.e., are you smarter than a fifth grader when it comes to American history and the Constitution, which by the way, have you checked Ms. Bachmann's credentials on that one lately?], stripping back or completely eliminating student voting, etc.), the deck has been stacked. Hell, even if everyone stayed home and never voted, the Republicans would still have "ballots" cast to prove they were elected!

I do commend some of my progressive peers for attempting to outrun this catastrophe by setting up comparable Karl Rove millionaire groups to fund progressives, for always looking for someone progressive to challenge in a primary, and for constantly raising the pom poms to get everyone on board. But I join the small, but growing handful of people that say who the fuck cares anymore. Just let it all blow up, let them ruin the country, because you can't fix it until it's no longer working. All we seem to be doing is putting the proverbial finger in the dike (and we see how well that is working for the Mississippi River problem don't we).

My new mantra: More wars, please! Build those plane parts the military has already said THEY DON'T WANT! Gut Social Security, do away with Medicare and Medicaid. And blow off unemployment insurance. Even though all of these programs are paid for out of "the people's" earnings, just let the rich take the money and run and hide. Let the guns be allowed in the bars so that those that are really hit hard by this pillaging of America (the ones with the guns in the bars) get drunk and stupid and start shooting the rich. An uprising cannot begin until it starts to affect those people most like to rise up ... and we are slowly but surely getting there.