Republican morality is in the toilet

I'm trotting out an old friend of mine again today...

Written by Christ Hedges for Truthdig.

"Those who retreat into fantasy cannot be engaged in rational discussion, for fantasy is all that is left of their tattered self-esteem. When their myths are attacked as untrue it triggers not a discussion of facts and evidence but a ferocious emotional backlash."

The reason Republicans re-direct your attention on issues and lie about things is they have no where else to turn in defense of their beliefs. There's no good reason to hate Obama other than race; there's no good reason to harp on Benghazi except for their hate of the black man in the white house; there is no good reason to continue to harp on cutting social security other than the fact that it is a favored program of the Kenyan Muslim haunting their dreams. Facts and reason are the friends of the enlightened and the liberals and conservatives thrive on fear and hate.

Just in case you'd forgotten what really nasty people right-wing conservative really are...

New Wisconsin law requires you to have state ID to vote. But they can't charge you for it, because that would be an unconstitutional poll tax. So the ID is free. But only if you ask for it for free. If you don't, it's $28. State employee fired for trying to inform people of this state of affairs.

Homeland Insecurity

The Federal Government is trying to push technological advances on us when, sometimes, we're not ready for them. One of the places where we expose ourselves is in applying for a Passport. All sorts of private information is provided in those forms and it seems as if we have a right to expect the government to protect us from identity theft.

Here's a report from Boing Boing online which rejects the notion that Americans are ready for RFID tags in our passports - or driver's licenses - or any other form of ID which we must carry around with us.

Meet Chris Paget, a hacker who believes that people shouldn't be tagged with RFIDs. He spent a productive day driving around San Francisco, sniffing and cloning mountains of RFID-equipped US passports and driver's licenses. The equipment to accomplish this feat cost him $250. When we debate the risks associated with RFID-equipped IDs, we usually focus on what happens when the government can follow us around everywhere -- but the real risk may be that crooks, marketing creeps and various unaffiliated snoops will do this instead.

Where We're Headed