State of the Blog, not that anyone cares

Hey, I've found a new toy, and as my days at U of I are more-or-less over, I'm not sure whether to rename this blog, scrap it, or what. Anyone interested should check out mfstrong.tumblr.com for what I'm doing these days, mostly on fascism and history.

Utterly surprised

Remember this toolbox? Turns out his is climbing the Republican ladder pretty quickly. From the New Orleans Times-Picayune:

Alleging a plot to wiretap Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu's office in the Hale Boggs Federal Building in downtown New Orleans, the FBI arrested four people Monday, including James O'Keefe, a conservative filmmaker whose undercover videos at ACORN field offices severely damaged the advocacy group's credibility. (source)

I expect great things from this young man. Great things.

That was the week that sucked.

The MA-SEN election has been dealt with better elsewhere, so I'm going to restrict my comments to the recent SCOTUS decision Citizens United v FEC. A few thoughts, then:

1. This is why elections matter. Two of the five justices in the majority were appointed by G.W. Bush after his 2004 re-election. 2 out of 5. Enough to swing the court. The only justice appointed by Obama so far wrote a dissent challenging the current views on corporations as people and money as speech. Elections. Matter.
2. The Roberts Court is ideologically driven. There's an excellent piece over at The American Prospect about the trend of the Roberts Court to take the side of the corporation over the citizen and the strong against the weak. Pandagon noticed this trend all the way back in may.
3. This is not the end of the world. Man up and stop saying things like "I'm going to move to Canada" or "America...RIP." We somehow managed to pull ourselves out of a similar state of affairs once already.