Fun Times!

Guess what everybody! If you're gay and a conservative there's now a place for you in the vacuous ether of the American right. We now have an initiative called GOProud whose mission is to "[represent] gay conservatives and their allies" through the traditional right-wing knuckle-dragging hubris of "free markets and a confident foreign policy."

In their latest post, Christopher Barron - GOProud founder and petitioner for a pass/fail grade for his freshman year PR course - posted this tidbit announcing some kind of annual gay Republican bash:

"The gay left," Barron laments, "has done their best to take all the fun out of politics, with their endless list of boycotts and protests."

Damn protestors practicing their first ammendment rights. How dare they?

"Homocon," Barron continues, "is going to be our annual effort to counter the 'no fun police' on the left."

Because nothing is more fun than the government forbidding you from getting married.

This post has nothing to do with music.

Sup Blamers-nia and Herzegovina. Just in case any y'all forgot, today is the day everyone goes out and votes in the primary elections. These elections determine which candidates are chosen to represent their party in next November's congressional election. The primaries, although they may seem "lame" or "pointless" are an important part of the American democratic process.

If you're at all like me, you cain't tell the difference between Dan Hynes and Pat Quinn for governor of Illinois. They're both Democrats and they both seem like legitimate assholes. They're marred with the corruption and general ineptitude one would expect from a Chicago politician. Which ever one you choose, it doesn't really matter. The middle class will carry the brunt of taxes while the wealthy sit back and scoff at the misery of the poor. Since this is Illinois we're talking about here, one of them will beat which ever social conservative free market fundamentalist the Republican party can cough up.

That's why I urge all you Illinois progressive to vote for Rich Whitney this November. Whitney ran against Blago four years ago and received over ten percent of the popular vote. That's pretty good for a third party candidate. Here's to an extra 3 percent this year!

The Wedge

Hello brothers, and thank you for taking the time to visit our little blog. I've noticed that more fans have discovered us recently, some from as far away as Europe! Alright, Blamers nation. Keep on truckin.

Today saw the much anticipated meeting between President Obama and leaders of organized labor over the placement of taxes in the new health care bill. The current bill employs the so-called "Cadillac tax" to help pay for the coverage of millions of Americans who currently have none. Unions, progressives, and many House Democrats oppose these taxes because of the heavy burden placed on the middle class.

I wanted to bring to your attention a snippet from a speech given earlier today by Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO.

The tax on benefits in the Senate bill pits working Americans who need health care for their families against working Americans struggling to keep health care for their families. This is a policy designed to benefit elites—in this case, insurers, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and irresponsible employers, at the expense of the broader public. It’s the same tragic pattern that got us where we are today, and I can assure you the labor movement is fighting with everything we’ve got to win health care reform that is worthy of the support of working men and women.

[snip]

Let me be even blunter. In 1992, workers voted for Democrats who promised action on jobs, who talked about reining in corporate greed and who promised health care reform. Instead, we got NAFTA, an emboldened Wall Street – and not much more. We swallowed our disappointment and worked to preserve a Democratic majority in 1994 because we knew what the alternative was. But there was no way to persuade enough working Americans to go to the polls when they couldn’t tell the difference between the two parties. Politicians who think that working people have it too good – too much health care, too much Social Security and Medicare, too much power on the job – are inviting a repeat of 1994.

These new taxes are already firmly established in the Senate bill and it is very unlikely that they will change. Trumka - and progressives around the nation - know this; the speech serves, however, as a fierce rebuke and warning to the Democratic Party that it cannot continue to ally itself with big business without alienating large swaths of its base. In nine months a tiny fraction of Americans will vote for all 435 House Representatives and 36 Senators. Trumka's speech today may prove to be yet another harbinger of this year's upcoming election.