This kid is badass

I know him personally. He is a badass.

Watch a 9 year old boy testifies to the Maine Public Utilities Commission about the inappropriateness of a 45 year contract for Nestle's unfettered access to their municipal water supply. Because of Maine's weak groundwater protection laws, Nestle is using the MPUC to help drive their agenda in their control over Maine's water resources.

The Governor of Maine, Paul LePage appoints the PUC commissioners. The commissioners all have ties to Nestle or the law firm that represents them in Maine. Not Ethical...

Photo Caption Contest

Here's your source photo:



And here is a link to I can Haz Cheezeburger's LOL builder: build it and they will haz cheeseburger

Here's a couple to start things off.






I'm sure you can do better. Send your entries to punkpatriot411 [at] gmail [dot] com

The winner wins something good, but not something awesome (sorry, I'm poor).

Paul LePage is a Lying Douchebag

If you don't already know, Maine Governor Paul LePage took down a mural in the Maine Department of Labor which depicted the struggle of organized labor throughout the last century.

When he originally did this, he was renaming rooms originally named after pillars of organized labor, to be "more business friendly." He said that the mural was "too one-sided." That it didn't tell the story of the job creators. You know, sure it showed the children who were forced to work in factories for pennies a day before child labor laws were put in place... but what about the factory owners who employed them?

Well, now Paul LePage has a different reason for taking down the mural:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Now, the fact that he's squirming, and laughing at the fact that he's lying to Brian Williams and ostensibly getting away with it is reason enough to be suspicious of this flip flop.

But let's dig a little deeper.

Okay, well not too much deeper. We don't actually have to dig very far at all. Just as far back as this article over on CNN which states that the labor mural paid for out of a FEDERAL ART GRANT.

"Most of the artist's commission of $60,000 was paid from federal money, made available by transferring it to the state's account in the trust fund."

And not only that, the Federal Government bought that public art with a contract, stating in no uncertain terms the placement of where the mural was to be displayed. And taking it down violates that contract.

And so the Federal Government has threatened Paul LePage, that if the art is not put back up, in accordance with the contract, they will demand their money back.

Which, in his new version of reality, is exaclty what Paul LePage is saying HE is doing. In an post-Orwellian game of "I know you are, but what am I?" Paul LePage has taken this very threat and lawsuit against him, and flipped it on its head.

The worst part is that nobody is willing to call him out for being completely full of shit. Brian Williams just lets LePage's bullshit slide.

Even this Bangor Daily News article takes an "even-handed" approach to the subject.

Watching this idiot laugh at himself getting away with lying, I can't help but be reminded of the bumbling idiot leaders of the Soviet Union during its collapse. They, like Paul LePage, lied broadly, and brazenly. They, like Paul LePage, had no legitimacy.

I think it's time the State of Maine, like the former soviet states, had our own nonviolent color revolution.

LePage's Voter Suppression Bill: Chellie Pingree on Rachel Maddow

The bill to eliminate same-day registration is aimed to suppress the vote, particularly of working people and young people.

BrokeFix takes LePage to Court

nice.

KILL ALL ART

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DIY Democracy

Some say that the mural in Maine is a non-issue, a distraction from the actual policy-based war on the working person.

I disagree that this is a distraction. I see this as the poetic embodiment of exactly what is wrong with our country today.

When the fascist Roman empire invaded and occupied another nation, the first thing they do is tear down symbols of national identity and replace them-- with their own. They do this to say "we've won, stop fighting."

When the nazi's invaded and occupied another nation, the first thing they did was tear down symbols of national identity and replace them with their own. They did this to say, "we've won, stop fighting."

When the USA invaded and occupied Iraq, the first thing we did was tear down symbols of national identity and replace them with american flags. We did this to say, "we've won. Stop fighting."

In the war on the working class, that is exactly what Paul LePage has done, whether he realizes it or not.

One must realize, however, that Paul LePage isn't a calculating psychological tactician. He isn't thinking about ways to crush the will and injure the psyche of the working class. He is nothing more than an obedient attack dog for the Koch Brothers. He is a useful idiot, who has found his way to the seat of power through a broken winner-take-all electoral system that gives a person with 38% of the vote, the seat of power.

We must be careful not to let this vitriol for the GOP turn into pro-democrat sentiment by default. They are just as guilty, and have just as much blood on their hands in this perpetual war against working people. Here in Maine, it wasn’t even a year ago that we fought against the Democratic Party leadership for their attempt to push through a bill that would restructure taxes to accelerate wealth upwards, and subsidize cuts to the rich by taking even more from poor and working class people.

What’s more, we have, by assuming that political parties offer alternatives, put ourselves in the infantile position of begging the political parties for our dignity, to give us social justice, to give us our rights. These are not things that are theirs to give to begin with. These are things we own, and must realize ourselves. If we want them to be realized in policy, we need to stop begging, and start running for office and making it happen.

It was not Democratic Party who gave us women’s sufferage, it was women.
It was not Democratic Party who gave us civil rights, it was civil libertarians.
It was not Democratic Party who gave us the right to organize, it was unions.
It was not the Democratic Party who gave us the worker’s rights, it was working people.
If we want something, we must do it ourselves.
It’s not that we’re left without any other option, it’s that there never has been any other option. If we want to live in a better country, we must do it ourselves. If you want to get rid of laissez-faire economic policies, where corporations run roughshod over human beings and we do nothing to stop it, then you need to get rid of laissez-faire politics, where corporations run roughshod over human beings and we do nothing to stop it. Stop voting for Wall Street’s candidates!

Right now Obama is appointing Wall Street goon after Wall Street good to his cabinet. He has kept most of George W Bush's staff. Obama, with the difference of a few talking points, has been a seamless continuation of George W Bush's administration.

So long as we keep bouncing alternating between two heads of a Wall Street monster, we are doomed to continue, by our own compliance, the economic violence against ourselves and others, both here at home, and around the world, at the hands of the monied elite of Wall Street. When we continue to vote for the alternative faces of Wall Street, and we are doing nothing but pressing the knife more tightly against our own throat.

A better world is possible. We must make it real.

Do it yourself! I’m the punk patriot: to life, liberty, and pursuit of a less fucked up government.

Maddow gives a shout out to the Mural Projector Bandits

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The original video:

Tiny little beards

"‘Worst case is some women may have little beards’" - Paul LePage on why the ban on using Biphenol A, in baby bottle plastic, should be lifted.



Actually, BPA will give you fucktons of cancer. But whatever. That's still no reason to avoid poisoning our kids, right?