Wandering Around the fashionable Left Bank of Blogistan

So, I’m reading through Atrios’ blog – since it is every patriotic American’s duty to do so in these dark times for freedomFrench – and he leads me off into the wilderness (scroll down to his post entitled ‘ExExGay’ at 10:57 – the link is bloggered right now). Of course, this also led me further into the woods. And I found this about the Catholic doctrine covering up sexual adventures by priests. Since 1962.

Which, of course, was covered in a previous post by Atrios himself (scroll down to his post entitled ‘Oy’ at 8:38 – the link is bloggered right now). Bringing me right back to where I started from. Maybe it’s some sort of mystical liberal blog conspiracy or something. Maybe all liberal blogs lead back to Eschaton (the way all roads used to lead to Rome).

Maybe I need another coffee. Go check out the details yourself. Yes, you, Snoozy Q!

Random guerilla blogging may take place from undisclosed locations throughout the North American midwest this weekend.

Hammer Time

It seems that some Democrats are finally finding their cojones:
GOP Loses Pryor Vote in Senate. The score so far, fopr those of you playing at home, is Democrats 7, Estrada (R - inexperienced token Hispanic) 0; Democrats 3, Pryor (R - religious zealot) 0; and Democrats 3, Owen (R - owned by corpo-weasels) 0. The nomination of Henry Saad, another token minority nomination that proceeded despite being blue-slipped by both of his state's Senators, looks to be on the filibuster train as well. Considering that Stole Himself An Election has been stacking the courts (his appointees are almost universally far-right conservatives), and the filibuster is the single remaining arrow in the Democratic quiver at this point, I must commend the Democrats on their restraint in this situation.

And I also would like to ask them: why are you bringing knives to a gun fight? If you were dealing with a civilized opponent that was playing by the rules, I could understand your reluctance. But these clowns are pulling every dirty trick in the book, and then some. It’s time to hammer them back. Put the government into gridlock over this crap if you can. Obstruct everything – and watch the deficit go down because no one can agree on how to divvy up the spoils. Filibuster every single far-right conservative they put into the judicial nominee pool. Make Drinky McDumbAss and the God Squad prove every statement coming out of their foul pieholes – and sit back and enjoy the show as they shove their heads even further up their asses. Playing nice has not gotten you anywhere, and it won’t with these idiots.

Fishing For Taxes

This is a follow up to an earlier post about my adventures with the tax man. I have been reading about other people’s travails with the insurance industry, and their (surprise!) practices of extra billing, double billing, illegitimate billing, refusal to pay claims, etc. Having spent some time in the computer department area of some medical billing companies, I can tell you that this is not being done by accident. I also worked for an insurance company during my misspent youth – and they do the same type of thing. Especially if they think you’re a mark who can’t handle the pressure.

How does this relate to what I have just went through? Well, the State of Michigan decided that they would try and fish for some quick cash by bankrupting yours truly. I have talked to my accountant, and she thought this was one of the funniest things she had heard in a long time. She also told me a few stories in a similar vein about some of her past clients and their adventures with the tax man. And the hopes of the tax man that the poor schmoes they do this to will just pay them and shut the hell up.

Then the tax department told me that they weren’t sure whether I should be filling out tax form set A or tax form set B. I have already sent them a complete set of tax forms A, and of course immediately volunteered to send them a set of tax forms B to make sure I wouldn’t get caught in a Catch-22. And of course was told that I didn’t need to worry, just ignore that sword we hung above your head – and no, don’t send those forms in.

For some strange reason, I don’t feel reassured. I am still considering giving up the business, and I am still somewhat nervous about the whole situation, despite the best efforts of my peeps. I really like the whole idea of biodiesel – it could help things out so much right now. Even 20% biodiesel makes an incredible difference in the amount of pollutants coming out of diesel vehicles – and would be able to be put right into the tanks of existing buses in the transit systems around the world. But, since the greedy corpo-weasels haven’t figured out how to get their paws on all of that revenue, and (even worse) would have to give up some of their cake, they seem to be disinterested in the idea. Go figure...

Sunday Funny

I highly recommend going over to uggabugga, and checking out his pretty picture about pRezNit Who Care What You Think’s Fundraising Vacation. Partially funded with our tax dollars! Thanks, Putsch!

In the meantime, Tom Toles shows us, yet again, how Repugnicant hypocrisy is making the world a better place (cough):