I posed the question not long ago, “Where has our humanity gone?”  The answers I found were less than heart-warming, but as an eternal optimist, I still try to look for the silver lining in my American experience.  This wasn’t such a good week for humanity though, and I’ll give you a few examples taken directly from the pages of the news – and none of it is the rant of a bleeding heart Liberal because folks, you just can’t make this shit up.

Angel of Death or Gollum? Nope. It's Flordia Governor Rick Scott

In a mythical southeastern state, there lived a mythical TeaBagger governor.  He was a mythical criminal who was elected even after it was learned his mythical private enterprise had bilked the Medicare system of millions of mythical dollars.  He promoted gerrymandering of his state, rejected federal funding for job creating high-speed rail, and though there was no proof that welfare recipients were drug abusers, he signed a bill into law forcing welfare recipients to be drug-tested to receive benefits because he claimed studies showed that welfare recipients were proven drug abusers and he wasn’t having any of that on the state’s dime.  The mythical governor’s mythical cronies made big bucks from these drug tests, and though 7% of the general population couldn’t pass a drug test, only 2% of the welfare recipients failed the test and lost their benefits.  Turns out the only mythical part of this story is the idea that welfare recipients are serial drug abusers.  These drug tests, still being forced upon the welfare recipients cost the taxpayers far more than the benefits lost by the drug abusers.  Okay, no part of this story is mythical.  I’m referring of course, to Florida Governor, Rick Scott – and the reason no part of this story is mythical is because you can’t make this shit up.

So what’s the latest from TeaBagger Governor Scott?  According to this morning’s Palm Beach Post, he and other Florida officials covered up a public health emergency.  The State of Florida is currently in the midst of the worst tuberculosis outbreak in more than 20 years.  Because this outbreak only affected the underclass, health officials chose not to tell the public.  So bad was this outbreak, the State contacted the Center For Disease Control in Atlanta, who advised them to take direct action to inform the most vulnerable so this could be brought under control.  Seems Governor Scott, in a grand hurry to save money, closed the only state hospital responsible for handling the worst of these cases and he did so six months earlier than planned.

The results? 13 people are dead.  99 still living are infected and over 3,000 homeless were exposed in shelters in the Jacksonville area.  Most of those were poor black men, who don’t matter much to the State of Florida.  The cost to treat these already infected and exposed far exceeds the cost of prevention, which speaks volumes about the character of those involved in the cover-up.  What kind of people do this?  You can’t make this shit up.

IL Congressman Joe Walsh - The Mouth That Roared

Remember Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh?  Deadbeat dad?  The mouth that roared? Ring a bell?   This week, he launched an attack on the woman opposing him for his seat in Congress.  Tammy Duckworth is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the Illinois National Guard who lost both her legs when her helicopter was shot down over Iraq.  Walsh, who never served one day in uniform in the service of this country, attacked Duckworth’s military service, stating the following: “Now I’m running against a woman who, my God, that’s all she talks about,” said Walsh, a Tea Party freshman. “Our true heroes, it’s the last thing in the world they talk about.”  In an interview with Politico in March, he made the following comment: “I have so much respect for what she did in the fact that she sacrificed her body for this country,” said Walsh, simultaneously lowering his voice as he leaned forward before pausing for dramatic effect. “Ehhh. Now let’s move on.”

Tammy Duckworth, Fake Hero

“What else has she done? Female, wounded veteran … ehhh,” he continued. “She is nothing more than a handpicked Washington bureaucrat. David Axelrod, Rahm Emanuel just picked her up and dropped her into this district.”  To the contrary, Ms. Duckworth has run a noble campaign of ideas.  Of course, ideas frighten the Baggers, because they only know how to keep spouting the same tired rhetoric that solves nothing.  Really?  Attacking a veteran?  You call her a Washington insider, handpicked?  Really?  I think she was in Iraq getting her legs blown off, you blow hole.  You can’t make this shit up.

Today, Willard Romney held a series of fundraisers in the Hamptons.  Way to stay in touch with the common man, Willard.  These fundraisers culminated in a huge, $50,000 a plate event at the home of John Bircher Billionaire, David Koch of Koch sucker fame.  An attendee of the event told an L.A. Times reporter staked out at the gate, that Willard made the following comment: “I don’t think the common person is getting itmy college kid, the baby sitters, the nails ladies — everybody who’s got the right to vote — they don’t understand what’s going on. I just think if you’re lower income

Willard says we're the ones who just don't get it. Would you buy a used car from this man?

— one, you’re not as educated, two, they don’t understand how it works, they don’t understand how the systems work, they don’t understand the impact.” Yeah, the college kids with loans they can never hope to repay, the babysitters, working three jobs to pay the rent, the nail ladies who hear the stories of the struggles of the middle class, all those people with the right to vote, much to his chagrin, they just don’t understand what’s going on.  Willard, as you and your cronies do everything in your power to defund education in this country, keep bitching to your rich white billionaire donors how out of touch these struggling uneducated rubes are with the American experience, you schmuck.  And this coming from the man hiding all his cash in the Caymans to avoid paying taxes, took a $77,000 tax deduction for his wife’s horse and built a car elevator in one of his homes.  I’m telling you, you just can’t make this shit up.

Ernest Borgnine 1917-2012

Oscar winning actor Ernest Borgnine died this morning at the age of 95.  14 years ago, he made the following comment to a journalist:   “I’m 81 years old and I like to speak my mind. As a legacy, on the day I die, I’d like to have a newspaper publish all the things that I find wrong in the United States today. And my first would be to get rid of the politicians. We put politicians into Congress and the Senate for what? For representation. But who do they represent? They represent not only their party, but the people who give them the money, the lobbyists”

This isn’t a newspaper, Ernie, but under the circumstances, it was the best I could do in your honor.  You were never what anyone could consider “The Hollywood Elite”, but you had a good mind and you clearly got it.  This is what happens to a country when all pretense of representation is laid down and elected officials freely admit to working for our Corporate Overlords.

Ernie knew.  You just can’t make this shit up.


Carol Baker is a political writer, satirist, and co-host with Vicki Childs of our Here Women Talk weekly internet talk radio show called BROADSIDED. You can hear their show every Thursday at 11 am Eastern/10 Central/8 Pacific.