The oath of that the president elect takes calls on her/him to defend the Constitution, but on this New Year’s Eve President Obama signed a huge $662B defense appropriation bill that included a provision giving the United States military the power to detain US citizens indefinitely and without criminal charges. In other words, the man who promised as a candidate never to sign such a bill—who just two weeks ago threatened to veto the appropriation over this nonsene—went ahead and gave the military sweeping powers to ignore the Constitution just so he wouldn’t look like he was against funding our troops.

Not like Obama hasn’t proven over and over that he’s a gutless shill, unable to take a principled stand on…well…much of anything. But signing a bill that essentially does away with the 5th, 6th, and 14th Amendments is a new low, and was made all the worse by Obama’s signing statement claiming that he had no intention of applying indefinite detention to US citizens.

Really Mr. President? You really expect that, just because you won’t be throwing US citizens in dungeons, that the next man or woman to warm your chair isn’t going to say, “Oh hey! I can just imprison my opponents. Thank’s Barack!” It doesn’t occur to your addled brain that Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, or Rick Santorum won’t do, without a second thought, what you claim you won’t. ARE YOU A F*CKING MORON!?

Mr. President…failing to uphold your oath of office by signing a law that explicitly violates the Constitution is tantamount to treason. And do you know what we call people who betray their country by committing treason?

Happy F*cking New Year America! We’ve got at least one more year of this clown, and when he’s done we’ll almost certainly have to deal with someone worse.

So Donald Trump, business man, reality television star and former Republican primary candidate is hosting a political debate.  I’ve been watching this story with interest and mild amusement.  I wonder,  “what qualifies him to host a debate?”  Doesn’t the fact that he himself was a potential candidate for president seem like a conflict of interest?  Is it that he’s such a big star?  Um, rating on The Apprentice have been trending down for years now.

I honestly don’t know who is going to be at this debate.  Romney, Paul and Huntsman have all declined.  Gingrich on the other hand went to Trump Tower and held a press conference with “The Donald” to announce his participation.  How far the mighty have fallen.  I’m imagining Newt, Michelle Bachmann, Rick Perry and Trump all in a room competing for the title of biggest media whore.  A circus indeed.

Never have so few done so much harm to so many.  Yes, I’m talking about Congress again.  The 112th Congress has managed since convening in January of 2011 to accomplish almost nothing.  Money.com breaks it down for us.  Consider this.

-  They’ve threatened government shut down – twice

-  They’ve cost the nation it’s sterling credit rating

-  They can’t pass a budget or even work in committee to find desperately needed savings.  They just throw in the towel.

-  They’ve worsened the housing crisis by not acting

-  They’ve done nothing for the jobless

-  They’ve threatened Medicare and Medicaid patients as well as those who collect Social Security

They are by my account an EPIC FAIL.  It’s time to vote the bastards out.  Who’s with me?

The bi-partisan Super Committee has admitted defeat.  Tasked with finding $1.2 trillion in spending reductions, they have proved unable to push past party politics.  Mired in political gridlock yesterday the Committee threw up its hands and told the American public that we just don’t matter.  Well it matters to the stock market.  It tanked 284 points on the news.  And it matters to seniors looking to have their Social Security cut back, their Medicare and Medicaid cut off.  It matters to the jobless.

Because this Congress can’t work together like adults, there will be no tax reform, there will be not additional revenue raised to pay down our horrifying deficit.  There will be no new jobs.  Yes, America for your money and your patience, you once again get nothing.

So it came out today that Herman Cain is worried by people with “muslim-sounding” names. In fact, what really bothers him is that such a person might not share his Christian values. To tell it in his own words about a physician he once visited:

“I said to his physician assistant, ‘That [Dr. Abudullah] sounds foreign, not that I had anything against foreign doctors–but it sounded too foreign. She said, ‘He’s from Lebanon.’ Oh, Lebanon! My mind immediately started thinking, ‘Wait a minute, maybe his religious persuasion is different than mine!’ She could see the look on my face and she said, ‘Don’t worry, Mr. Cain, he’s a Christian from Lebanon.’ [to which Cain responded] ‘Hallelujah! Thank God.’”

Now let’s ponder this for a moment. Herman Cain doesn’t want people who don’t share his “religious persuasion” around him. I suppose we could infer that this means he won’t want Muslims in his cabinet. Whoops! He already said that. But taking things a step further, would it be reasonable to assume that Herman Cain wouldn’t want non-Christians on the Supreme Court? Or how about the military? Don’t want any non-Christians there.

In fact, if you’re not a Christian (…and by that we mean the “right kind of Christian”), then Herman Cain’s America is probably not one that you’ll want to live in.

So to all you Muslims, Sihks, Hindus…uh…Jews, Catholics, Mormans, Orthodox (Russian, Greek, or whatever)…Confucianists, Taoists, druids, Wicca, Shintoists…Cthulans…atheists, agnostics, secular humanists, and Satanists…you might want to consider what it would mean for this ignorant bigot to be elected to our nation’s highest office.

Diabolically oblivious Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke made news this week when in the face of all credible evidence to the contrary, he declared there is “No inflation” in America right now.  Really Ben?  Really?  Well let’s look at the facts, shall we?  The price of gas is up, the price of food is up, the price of energy is…say it with me…up.  In fact Mr. Chairman if you do the research you’ll learn that the cost of the makings of a Thanksgiving dinner are also up.  13% year over year.  That’s what I call double digit inflation.  I find it incredibly disingenous of the government to tell us that inflation is stable while not counting the most combustile priced things that we buy.  As the Frog pointed out to me gas has gone up (and then down again) at least 20% over the past year alone.  I’m guessing it’s only going to go up again.  So are food prices.  I was at a convenience store today where they were touting milk for $3.99 a gallon.  When did $3.99 milk become a bargain?  Oh yeah, right about the time they raised the cost of my parking by 20% and then another 20% a few short months later.  No inflation, just saying that doesn’t make it so.

In case it wasn’t already blindingly apparent to what’s left of the America’s middle-class, the ‘Thuglican establishment has no interest in job creation. Oh they may roll out the platitudes, like the GOP hopefuls did in this evening’s 10th primary season echo-chamber. They may hyperventilate about how we need to unshackle American business, reducing already absurdly low taxes, in order to secure a promise of new jobs—jobs that we know from experience will never be created.

But look at the rhetoric: Mitt Romney wants to do away with another 500,000 government jobs…on top of the 600,000 that have already been lost during this recession. Mitch McConnell has admitted that GOP priority #1 is defeating President Obama, and in service of that goal you can bet that no action on job creation is going to make it out of the Senate. Of course, the House has made it abundantly clear that they’re not interested in jobs either, since not a single bill has been proposed that actually has a chance of creating a single job.

So it’s time to accept that as long as the GOP has a hand on the levers of power, the job situation in this country will continue to deteriorate. And why? Because that’s the way American business, as well as the multi-nationals that really control the GOP (Democrats as well), want things!!! Do you think 9% unemployment is a tragedy? Well…me too, but I
guaran-f*cking-tee that the attitude of Chase, or Cargill, or Microsoft is, “WHOOPEE!”

9% unemployment and a climate where there is only a single job for every 4 job seekers is a climate in which everyone is hungry—a climate where workers can’t afford to quibble about how many hours they’re working and how much they’re not getting paid. It’s an environment where benefits can be cut, salaries can be slashed, unions can be eliminated, and workers can’t do a damn thing about it because who can afford to risk getting fired when no one can count on ever being employed again.

9% unemployment is not a disgrace, not temporary, and certainly not something that government wants to fix. It’s just a good beginning.

So let me get this straight…the top 1% get the Pacific Northwest, all those great national parks and Silicon Valley. The 9% below the top get the crumbling infrastructure of the Northeast, snow, sleet, and freezing rain. And the poor schmucks at the bottom get crushing humidity, arid wastes, and…well…Texas.

Yup, seems like a map drawn to satisfy those at the top.

So first it was the Obama administration with their Home Affordable Modification Program, designed to keep underwater borrowers in their homes by offering them mortgage modifications through their lenders. Now…conservative economists and even a few Republican presidential hopefuls are jumping on the massive, taxpayer-funded, mortgage modification bandwagon—though not out of a sense of compassion for homeowners, but rather the realization that banks, and the economy more generally, need consumers to be consuming, something they can’t do now due to crushing mortgage debt.

But what I want to know—and I don’t really give a damn whether the answer comes from a Democrat or a Republican—is: Where the f*ck is *my* god-damned mortgage relief!?

I’m over here playing by the rules. I bought a house I could afford, even if either the Frogette or I lose our job. I got a good rate; put down the requisite 20%; am busy pumping money into the local economy by refurbishing and renovating a 90 year home that was desperately in need of serious work. I’m doing every freakin’ thing those ass-wipes in the Obama administration or the RNC could possibly expect, but will I see even one penny from a new mortgage relief program? NOT BLOODY LIKELY!

Now I’m not greedy. I won’t even ask for money in my pocket. How about this: In exchange for another bailout for homeowners who have no money and less sense, I’d like big fat payment toward the installation of a full-up solar generation system with battery backup. In other words, help get me off the grid, and I’ll help get the economy moving again. And, when the Rethuglicans bitch about subsidies for solar energy, President Wuss should be required to tell them to go and F*CK THEMSELVES!!!