Remember that “labor-themed mural” in the Maine Department of Labor headquarters that wingnut teabagger Paul LePage ordered removed, because his administration hates Maine’s working families?
The U.S. Department of Labor says Gov. Paul LePage violated the terms of a federal grant when he removed a labor-themed mural from a state office building last month. Now the federal government, which paid most of the mural’s $60,000 cost, wants its money back.
This is turning into a real mess for the governor. He should learn that the real way to let a painting know “you mean business” is to punch it while it’s hanging, not take it down. [Kennebec Journal]
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There is no justice in this world unless Gov. Paul LePage has to pay the $60,000 back himself by working a minimum wage job without benefits.
At McDonald's… probably would eat all the profits
At the new child-labor rate he's proposing.
There is no justice in this world.
Fixed that for you.
(I doubt he'll even have to return it in the end.)
And there's the lawsuit from the artist; sorry Maine taxpayers, but you elected this asshole so it's your own damn fault.
He won by a whopping 38%! Just like the criminal Scott, here in the dingus. 5,000 people voted in FL. (I was one of them). Of those 5,000 the fraudster won 38.9%. None of these assholes won by a majority. Yet, they have a mandate.
5,000 people voted in the whole state of Florida? Really?
It was more like this:
Lizard King /Corporate Hack
Popular vote 2,619,335 /2,557,785
Percentage 48.87 /47.72
It was a bit closer than Maine's race.
"..sorry Maine taxpayers, but you elected this asshole.."
To defend the Mainiacs, that isn't totally true as he only got 38% of the vote.
The dipshits that sat on their nuts at home (rather than getting out and voting for someone with some sense and scruples) actually voted.
Actually, the lefty vote was split between two candidates. Combined, those candidates got over 45% of the vote.
Oh great, well let's be sure to do that again and primary Barry because we are disappointed in him.
I wonder which of the two was funded by the Koch's?
I used to agree, but now I see no reason to chose between Godzilla and Mechagodzilla. If I ever get an absentee ballot again, I will write in the name of Long Dong Silver, Captain Beefheart or some other American with achievements outside politics.
Frankly, the Athenians had better results chosing their officials with a lottery.
Our duopoly provides a distinction without difference, it's true.
You know, the Communist Party of China has two factions, one promotingmanufacturing and exports, the other wanting to spend more money onrural schools and to revive the rural health system. (Others as well,no doubt.)
You mean voting isn't decided by a minimum-wage croupier working for the Company Formerly Known as Diebold in the Mississippi delta? No wonder I'm busted.
However, a ritual sacrifice would satisfy me. But only if its televised.
A great argument for getting rid of "first-past-the-post" voting.
Proportional Representation FTW.
Sounds great until you have to form a coalition with the farthest freakshow elements to even form a cabinet (looking at you Israel). Right now, at least in theory Boehner could work around the Tea Party if he gave a shit, but if they had the ability to walk away at any time? We'd all be forced to work/shop/live at Wal-Mart, as opposed to only 80 percent of us having to do that.
True, the Lib Dems in the UK are always wanting PR, but now that they , vaguely, have it it seems to have neutered Clegg
Unfortunately, the executive/legislative structure contained in the US Constitution and most state constitutions is not friendly to proportional representation. (Actually, it appears that the US Framers were specifically trying to avoid a parliamentary system, go figger).
On the other hand, Instant Runoff would prevent some of these clown shows.
YES!
You know, it seems to me that no vote at all should count as a vote for the status quo. If you can't get off your lazy ass and get to the polls, then obviously things must be just fine the way they are now.
Not everyone in Maine is an old geezer republican! Just the horrible grizzlies up north who can scratch a ballot every once in a while.
Another in the longer and longer list of stupid ass fat bastards that think they know what's best for everyone. Dumb Fuck is dumb… and a fuck.
Better yet, force him to paint Frances Perkins and Cesar Chavez and Samuel Gompers over and over while Richard Trumka stands over him with a cattle-prod. And then make him pay the $60K.
Second time in two days I've heard that prissy craft union AFL Gompers get the glory. I'll have you know that I was raised in a John L. Lewis worshipping family. Fuck yeah–Industrial unions! CIO!
Goddamn. You've unearthed memories of when unions were strong enough that they could waste effort fighting each other.
On the bright side, Donald Trump has offered to replace it with a Mural depicting his life and Sarah Palin protested that the move to reclaim the $60 Grand makes her the victim.
He'll just paint Ayn Rand as Lady Liberty and place a beaming blonde-haired Jesus looking on as a replacement mural.
Besides the voyeuristic 'looking on' will Jebus be doing anything to Ayn 'cause she was an atheist and all?
I hope one of the panels depicts everyone starving to death in Galt's Gulch.
Or he could just buy this guy's work.
$60K is a tidy sum of money. How many of the state's fleet of Dodge Reliant K cars will they have to sell in order to round that up? Damn…
or just auction off the the right to kill an abortion doctor (they have tags for this during hunting season…?)
Remind me how the Teabaggers are all about not wasting money again…
Shouldn't the Feds also charge interest? The mural went up in 2008. At 3% a year compounded daily, LePage owes the American taxpayer $65,650.21. To put it in terms a swell guy like LePage would understand: Pay up or shut up!
$60K? That's one less unqualified political donor's kid he can hire.
Actually that is 3/4 of a political donor's kid but maybe they go for less in Maine?
Um, he hired his OWN kid.
He'll pay for it with tax cuts to the rich which will then trickle golden, liquid money all over him and teh poorz in a nekkid, bacchanal festivus of economic largess.
No problem, Maine doesn't want that socialist gubmint money anyway, right?
I think that when they finally restore the mural, they should look to Gauguin's painting as a standard – we'll call it the three-exposed-boobs minimum for all public art.
When reached for further comment, LePage remarked,"This is evil [...] He has two women in the painting and it's very homosexual." LePage then continued, "I am from the American CIA and I have a radio in my head."
and a microwave in my desk, full of hotpockets. mmmm. hot pockets.
He's really spending his political capital.
$60K, screw that: LePage should have to come up with the market rate for this artist, which is likely to skyrocket with all the publicity she is getting.
And just to promote more publicity for her: http://www.judytaylorstudio.com/
Thanks for the link…
Everyone should read the artist's statement on painting the mural, and on the removal/controversy – it's a little heartbreaking:
Artist's Statement (pdf)
Wow.
Motion seconded. I would add an ouch, as I am reminded of my own grandfather who served in the Korean war, and whose hobby was painting fighter planes. Judy's all right.
I agree. Wow. Gov LePuke should read that. He can read, can't he?
Makes picking pockets easier, I suppose.
This guy is a fucking peach. I'm expecting big things out of him…
How come this blog doesn't have any posts about the Royal Wedding? This is a subject everybody is interested in, if MSNBC is any guide. For instance, did you know that Prince Whoever-the-Fuck is the beneficiary of a $200 million dollar trust which generates $35 million a year for him to entertain himself with? This is news you can use!
OK, please don't encourage that, I truly despise the Royal Family, my favourite MP , when I was a child, an unbelievably geeky one I'll admit, was Willie Hamiton.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Hamilton
The fascination the Brit media have with for these useless wastrels makes a kind of sense, since they have some constitutional role and oodles of £ Sterling are spent maintaining them and their properties. But US Americans fought a revolution to escape this silliness.
But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born . . .
Do go on!
Is there a Wonkette for the UK ?
There might be, but the humour on your gallows is sharper than on ours. We're still being forced up the stairs some way behind you.
A real pro-business governor would have given some campaign contributor builder a no-bid contract to have his illegal workers paint mustaches on the figures in the mural.
I really believe that those missing panels have already been vandalized by these thugs, which is why they haven't produced them yet.
Pretty Communistical organized labor theme Ms. Taylor is glorifying there. No wonder a right thinking leader responded to an anonymous fax from a concerned possible citizen by doing the only thing his conscience allowed: don't dither, destroy! That's leadership. He should pay up and replace it with depictions of topless labor that everybody can enjoy.
Everyone except for our new friend Susan Burns, that is.
I would hope that the lesson to be learned here is that actions have consequences. But it will probably just be spun as a Communist plot to undermine the Tea Bagger Movement since the U.S. LABOR Dept. wants the money back.
And everyone knows that LABOR=COMMUNISM.
And COMMUNISM=ATHEISM, and ATHEISM=… well, I don't know, but I hear it's bad!
I forget, did the picture have boobs? I only have time to care about pictures with boobs.
Alas, no. But the mural was removed by a total boob. Does that count?
They were naked boobs under all those clothes.
Boobocracy.
The horror, the horror!
This is a STATE'S RIGHTS ISSUE on FOX Noise in 3,2,1,…
I'm calling it as Fox's excuse to attack the National Endowment for the Art's funding.
When did they ever need an excuse?? My grandfather (a proto-Teatard from the beginning) was arguing with my mom and aunt about de-funding the NEA when I was knee-high to a grasshopper.
Up is down, in is out, fat is thin. If a Republitard says it more than three times, then it's true and teabaggers will fight to the death (the oppositions' death, that is) to prove it is blissfully, fact-lessly, gospel (the Supply Side Jesus version) true.
You nailed it Dusty. Bizarro-world.
Actually it's three ways to go through life. And not mutually exclusive!
Someday they'll paint a mural about the suffering America went through with Dubya Bush and the Repubicans. "They controlled every arm of government!" it will say in Comic Sans. But Governor Charles "Huckabee" Norris will take it down. "Biased in favor of accuracy," he'll explain. Anyway, I hope I look thinner — they say the canvas adds ten pounds.
Important electoral safety tip: There's this thing called a run-off election that prevents these problems from happening in the first place. Yes, they can be expensive, but there's nothing more expensive that electing a dipshit to high public office. If you don't believe that, go to Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery and count the number of times you read the words "Iraq" and "Afghanistan."
Say on, brother Steve, say on.
Strike Two for Le Dick du Nord.
What?! He already put the painted panels on the pile of books that were also burnt?
You know, the books full of un-Maine spirit.
An expensive mistake, eh?
Because I don't remember seeing it on here, did we ever cover LePage's ridiculous nepotism? The NYT editorial on the mural (now oooold) got a great zing in at the end about how he appointed his fresh-from-college daughter to a government job for 41k a year, more than starting teachers in Maine make. He needs to be nailed harder for this.
(Argh, also, why does my HTML keep breaking here? Is there some sort of intense debate link trick?)
I'll bet they're laughing to the point of loosing bowel and bladder control at that request at the White House. Moneys for Scooter's pet train upgrade should be just flying toward Madison now… Stupid arrogant little fucker.
Attention. The troll has changed its name again to Spanky2b. This is a busy one, for sure.
"Get a job, loser!"
When they follow me I get so, you know, sexually aroused.
Conceivably it's a computer program.
Carry on wasting your vote. It's yours, and it's deployment is, absolutely, your choice.
I would think you would have better luck by voting for Rev. Bud Green, if you really want to waste your vote for no good purpose.
I fear you've seen one too many re-runs of "Murder She Wrote".
How about a mural of the gov. vs Vlad the Impaler?
Too bad it seems to be an “either, or” choice in politics.
There are other factions, too. The Women's Federation probably isresponsible for reforming the marriage/divorce laws a few years ago.
Out of my depth here, so won't try to add to it.
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