Early Look at The House Races 2010

There has been quite a bit of talk in comments regarding the Dems getting their ass kicked on November 2nd. In looking at two separate analyses of the electoral map, I'm wondering how that is possible.

First up, we have the Cook Political Report which puts 214 House seats are Solid, Likely or Lean Democratic, while 181 seats are Solid, Likely or Lean Republican, and 40 seats are in the Toss Up column. No doubt, things are going to shift between now and the fall but I don't really see how the GOP is going to win 39 of 40 seats if we are operating in Cook's framework. This is especially true considering the fact that the Democrats have more money right now than the GOP.

The New York Times has a more realistic (and extremely cool!) map which I think illustrates the fluidity of the situation more accurately. They have 168-Solid Dem, 55-Leaning Dem, 31-Tossup, 18-Leaning GOP, and 163-Solid GOP. That basically puts 104 seats into play. The question is, if you are the GOP, where do you put your money? You would need to get all 18 of the leaning GOP (likely) which will put you at 181. Then you would need all 31 of the Tossups (doable) which would put you at 212. Now you need 6 of the leaning Dem (somewhat tough). Are these final 6 where you really spend your money? Again, I don't see an ass kicking here...just a possible eeking out of a victory or falling short. Of course, this could change but after looking at these numbers, I am revising my prediction for the House to 25 flips...which would put us at 230-Dem and 202-GOP.

As John Boehner said at a recent Monitor lunch, it will be an uphill climb. For once, I agree with him. When you look at the numbers this way, I guess I don't see the ass kicking.

Tomorrow: An early look at the Senate Races 2010.

Rhetorical Overreach

Joe Gandleman has a niece piece on the upcoming fall elections. The quote that stood out for me was this one.

I’ve long predicted that much will depend on GOP rhetorical overreach: if it gets to the point where Democrats rush to the polls due to polemics and the results are far less than the GOP expected on election day than Michael Steel and other party establishment bigwigs will be on the defensive.

If the GOP wants to see major gains and possibly take back the House in the fall, they will need to stop saying things like this.

“Nazis don’t have the right to put up a sign next to the Holocaust Museum in Washington,” Mr. Gingrich said on the Fox News program “Fox and Friends.” “We would never accept the Japanese putting up a site next to Pearl Harbor. There’s no reason for us to accept a mosque next to the World Trade Center.”

While this certainly fires up the base of the GOP, this kind of language (in addition to being filled with flaws), alienates independent voters. It also fires up the soft vote that Michael Moore talked about in the clip I put up last week. Certainly, it demonstrates an intolerance that could turn off a wide variety of demographics.

Let's take a look at some key facts:

1. The Planned Site is NOT on Ground Zero but is two blocks away. Two blocks away is not sacred or hallowed ground. Again, not the attack site but an ordinary block in lower Manhattan. I guess my question would be...how many blocks away is respectful?

2. It is not simply a Mosque. It is a community center with meeting rooms and a pool that offers more privacy to conform to religious restrictions. There is also going to be an auditorium for lectures.

3. Our Constitution guarantees freedom of religion and private property. If you vociferously defend the Constitution, as many in the GOP do every day, than you must defend the right for them to build their center there. To be against this Mosque would be incongruous if one claimed to be a defender of the Constitution.

As most of you know, I have a horrible prejudice against Muslim men. But the outrage over this is ridiculous. If anything, we need to show the world how tolerant we are and embrace them. This would demonstrate a clear separation between those who believe in the basic principles of freedom and tolerance (us) and those who do not (Hirabis).

And it is a stark example of Gandelman's rhetorical overreach. If I were a GOP strategist, I would tell them to get back to talking about the economy and jobs. That's where their greatest hope for victory lies.

A Loss For Words

"It's right on the inside of his skin"
"What is?"
"The number."
"What number? The number of Satan? Is that what you said?" I asked, trying desperately to understand.
"Yep. It's inside the skin flap on his arm...the number 666...imprinted on Barack Obama's arm."

I was at a complete loss for words. Making matters worse, he said all of this in front of my ten year old daughter who, sadly, is best friends with his ten year old daughter. We were at National Night out and all of our neighbors were gathered in the street around our house which is in the middle of the block. Jeff was my neighbor who informed me of the return of the anti-Christ.

Luckily, I didn't have to stay long as I had to coach tennis that evening. When I got home, my daughter was very upset as was my son. Jeff's daughter had been telling them all night that the government was going to take over everyone and send them to a re-education camp. My son told me that he liked his school and didn't want to leave at which my wife chuckled.

After a few minutes of explanation, I sat and reflected about Jeff and how much he reminded me of others in my life. In this reflection and the period of time since then, I have reached a conclusion: I will no longer be referring to the GOP as the "Cult" any longer. In addition, I'm going to make every effort to analyze what they say without being derisive. This, of course, does not mean I won't be critical or wonder where their reasons and facts are for a particular argument. It does mean that I am done personally attacking or labeling people that are on the right. I will also be relying more heavily on what they say as opposed to my interpretation of it. If they wish to continue to do that with me, it will be ignored and I will respond with impersonal comments. This will also hold true for any comments I have on TSM as well, although I think the transition will be more difficult over there.

Why the change?

As I listened to Paul, I realized that he was really just an unhappy soul. His outrage, much like we see across the country, is based on anomie....or a feeling of normlessness of not being able to function within our culture. Paul works as a mechanic on the rides at Valley Fair, a local amusement park, as well as several odd jobs during the winter. He feels that he deserves more and blames not himself but President Obama and Nancy Pelosi for his problems. Like many people, Paul has not achieved the material success in his life expected of someone his age (40s). This goal of monetary achievement is one of the cornerstones of our culture and, in the eyes of our society, Paul has fallen short and so it's really no surprise that he feels the way he does.

I said earlier that he reminded me of others in my life. My uncle Bill and my friend Pete from back in Wisconsin have the same views that he does. Neither are employed and both are staunchly right wing. They, too, blame Democrats for their lot in life and are angry...frustrated...that things have not worked out the way they want them too. Rather than examine their own faults, they blame the policies of the last 18 months as reason number one for their failure to be upwardly mobile. Their proclamations (my uncle: "That bitch in the House" Pete: "Our country is like the Soviet Union now with President Obama") have always made me sad and frustrated over the last two years.

But it was really Paul's recent declaration that Barack Obama was the anti-Christ that drained all of the snark, bitchiness, and downright obnoxious behavior right out of me. The enormity of it was too much to handle. It was a slow drain over the last two weeks and I have nothing left in me. I'm not perfect so I may slip from time to time but I just don't think my heart is in writing this blog the way I have been. These people need help not chastisement. They need an educator or, failing that, to simply be accepted...somehow....for what they believe.

Wait...huh?

I've been assured by some of my readers here and all the commenters over at TSM that Europe has become a cesspool of economic decline and that our current President's policies, similar to the Eurozone's, are sure to send us into a boiling pit of sewage.

Yet, reality doesn't jibe with this belief. Take a look at this.

As a whole the EU saw growth of 1% in the second quarter, as did the 16 countries that make up the eurozone. Germany and France, the two engines of the European economy, have both beaten analysts expectations. France's economy grew at a respectable rate of 0.6% in the second quarter. But the real story here is Germany. Not since the Berlin wall divided the country has Europe's biggest country seen growth of 2.2% in a single three month period.

France? Crap, there goes another whipping boy of the Cult Tribe doing something better than us. Shit, that's really gotta suck.

Interestingly, the ruling party of Germany employs a social market economic strategy. The mere mention of the word "social" in here is sure to unleash a volley of wordy squirts below but the numbers don't lie. It's working.

Perhaps that means that the reason why our recovery has been sluggish is because the "liberal commie" Barack Obama has coddled our private sector. Could it really be as simple as this?

The main elements of the Social Market Economy in Germany are basically:

• The Social Market Economy contains the central elements of the free market economy such as private property, free foreign trade, exchange of goods and free formation of prices.

• Other elements shall diminish occurring problems of the free market economy. These elements, such as pension insurance, health care and unemployment insurance are part of the social security system. The payments to the social security system are mainly made by the labor force. In addition, there are provisions to restrain the free market (e.g. anti-trust code, laws against the abuse of market power etc.).

Yes.

Perfect Summation

I don't think there is a better video that sums up Sarah Palin.



Elect candidates that understand the Constitution. You mean like our president who is a Constitutional scholar? Silly me, only certain people understand what the Constitution means...

And check out her reaction when Kathleen says that she is a teacher. It's "Ah...shit...another commie pinko who refuses to accept the Creed."

The Actual Cause For Concern

There certainly has been a lot of chest thumping these days when it comes to the fall election. The Cult Tribe will have people believe that they are going to "run Obama out of town."

Setting aside the fact that Mr. Obama isn't up for re-election until 2012, Democrats should have plenty of reasons to be concerned. Those reasons, however, do not include a sudden embrace of Cult ideology or an overwhelming transformation of part of the electorate. In their never ending quest to "win the argument," that is how the Tribe is painting the picture. People are now "seeing the light" and realizing the "failure" of liberal policies.

Odd, because there really haven't been any liberal policies at all. They might look that way when you shave the football field in half and call the 50 yard line liberal but the real progressives are the issue. The actual cause for concern was summed up quite nicely by Michael Moore last night on Countdown at 7:20 into this clip.

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

So, it's the liberals and independents who lean liberal possibly staying home that will decide this election. The Right simply doesn't have the numbers to win regardless of how riled up they are or how energized their base is on November 2nd. Take a look at this list of polls regarding party identification. Consistently, more people identify themselves as Democrats. If there is low voter turnout, it favors the GOP. And that's why you see them going after groups like ACORN.

Thankfully, as Moore says, the hard core of the Dems will get out and vote. The alternative is a return to complete failure and a certain magnification of the problems we are trying to solve now.

An Unrealized Dream

I find myself feeling quite melancholy today and it's largely due to this editorial from the New York Times.

Once, in what seems like another eon of Republican politics, George W. Bush dreamed of building a multiethnic party that would achieve dominance in a nation where the words “majority” and “minority” were losing their meaning. Mr. Bush was adamant, in the days after the terrorist attacks of 2001, that American Muslims not become the targets of public resentment, and he later pushed a plan to offer illegal immigrants a path toward citizenship.

Republicans are now taking a decidedly different approach.

No shit.

I remember two distinct events from the presidency of George W. Bush that echo this piece. He gave a speech in which he stated quite directly that he would use "his FBI" to come down hard on anyone who harassed Muslims. He mentioned an example of a woman wearing a Burqa who was beaten. "If a woman is wearing cover," he said, "she is practicing religious freedom which is what this country is all about."

W was also the first (and only so far) sitting president to call for a state of Palestine.

Now, I am not a fan of Bush and think that most of his presidency was marred by incompetence and a pathological drive for financial dominance that at several moments bordered on criminality. But there is no doubt in my mind that George W. Bush was not a racist, prejudiced or any way discriminatory. Contrary to Kayne West's imbecilic comment, George Bush does not hate black people. Nor any non whites for that matter. And his track record proves this to be true. His in laws are Hispanic and his administration was the one of the most diverse in our country's history.

Given three issues that have come to the forefront recently, Bush's efforts have all gone to shit.

First, we have the "outrage" over building a mosque near (not on) Ground Zero. Second, we have several US Senators and Congressional reps calling for the repeal of the 14th Amendment. Third, we have the hard stance against illegal immigrants and much louder yelling for border enforcement. Put all of these together and it is plain to see that Bush's dream of a multiracial GOP is absolutely fucking gone. In its place is a terribly ugly ideology that serves only to alienate people who don't conform to a highly fictionalized ideal of what it means to be "American." Bai quite astutely compares the current GOP to the Know Nothing party of the 1850s. But let's get back to the subject at hand....W.

When Mr. Bush, a Texan fluent both in Spanish and in immigration policy, advanced a plan to reform the system in 2006, he was going directly into the teeth of that sentiment within his own party. His failure virtually guaranteed that his party — already beset by an unpopular war and mounting distrust from black Americans — would not become the broader coalition he had hoped to build.

I know it seems anathema for some of you but I honestly feel more sorry for the guy than I ever have. So what does that mean for the future?

This could be a problem for Republicans in the years ahead, as the American electorate rapidly grows more diverse. “You can win elections temporarily by accumulating large percentages of the white vote,” says Matthew Dowd, who was a top strategist in Mr. Bush’s two elections, “but over time, it’s unsustainable.”

I contend that everything we are seeing now from the Right...EVERY SINGLE WORD THAT COMES OUT OF THEIR MOUTHS....is the last gasp of a dying man. They know that this election and possibly 2012 are pretty much it for their type of politics. After that, our country's diversity is going to be increasing at an amazingly large rate.

So, how is it going to possible for them to build any sort of broader coalition or have a real future for their party?

Scaring White People For Fun and Profit.

Rachel was dead on right with this one. Pay attention to what John McCain says at 5:18.



"Violence the worst I have ever seen." Really? According to the FACTS presented here in this piece the EXACT OPPOSITE is actually true. I wish he and other Cult Tribe members would actually come out and say, "I want to scare you so you will come out and vote against the party who is actually doing something to solve our nation's problems which will result in my party being irrelevant." That's essentially their tactic. I wonder how long it will work.

Add in all the anti-mosque garbage lately and one has to wonder why people think that the Cult Tribe is prejudiced. Golly whiz, I just can't understand why Maher's opinion (not all Republicans are racist but if you are a racist then you are probably a Republican) is even remotely valid.

I guess it must be my lyin' ears again!

Ejected by the Cult Tribe

Remember this guy? He WAS South Carolina Congressional Rep Bob Inglis who made the unfortunate mistake of telling his constituents to turn off Glenn Beck during a town hall meeting. And now he is out of job completely...losing 71 to 29 percent in his primary last June. Why?

Because he wouldn't go along with the Cult.

Sanchez read from Inglis's recollection of a conversation with some voters: "'Bob, what don't you get? Barack Obama is a socialist, communist Marxist who wants to destroy the American economy so he can take over as dictator. Health care is part of that. And he wants to open up the Mexican border and turn [the US] into a Muslim nation.'"

Sounds like Cult Tribe 101. But who were these people?

"That was several 80-year-old couples that were expressing their views. And you know, what I should have said was, 'Over my dead body that's gonna happen. I can guarantee it's not gonna happen,'" said Inglis. "That would have been the better answer, wouldn't it? Rather than the one I gave, which is, 'Well it's not quite that bad, let's keep it within the realm of facts.'"

Facts? Bob...Bob...Bob...don't you know that whatever the Cult says are facts, are facts damnit!

Check out more of the interview.



Ingliss was an example of a Republican that I respected. Sadly (and as I have said a zillion times on here), they are a dying breed. If you ain't a hate spitting, fear mongering malcontent with wildly psychotic theories and made up facts, you are not welcome in the GOP this year.

I ask again, how can they win by moving further to the right? More importantly, how can they maintain party integrity in the future?

Walking at Wounded Knee

The man gripped my hand tight and wouldn't let go.

"Just some gas money...please," he whispered.

I knew he was playing on my guilt which was overpowering considering I was standing on the mass grave containing scores of Native American bodies massacred at Wounded Knee on December 29, 1890. But I couldn't help it. I gave him a few bucks and he went on his way with his daughter.

For my entire life, I have wanted to visit this area of South Dakota. When I was a very young child, my dad would read passages from the book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown to me and tell me a version of history that I had never heard. No John Wayne. No red faced savages. Just lie after lie...murder after murder...slaughter after slaughter. When we decided to take a family vacation there, we planned a day trip down to the massacre site and then back through the Badlands.

Getting to the site itself is slightly difficult. The roads in that part of the state are not clearly marked so we had to sort of guess that we were going in the right direction. The few miles leading up to Wounded Knee were massively depressing.

The site is on the Pine Ridge Reservation and as we passed through the several Native American communities on our way there, the poverty was staggering. Burned out trailers and dozens of cannibalized automobiles littered the landscape. Honestly, it looked just like the poverty one would see in a Third World country. It was awful. All four of us were pretty shook up by it.

When we got to Wounded Knee, we saw a few make shift dream catcher stands set up along with a few tourists. We made our way up to the monument and the grave to check it out. Here is what it looks like today.

Right before we walked under the cross, the man above approached me. There were a few Native Americans sort of hanging around with dream catchers to sell. As some other tourists came up, they drifted to them and my daughter and I walked around.

As I was reading the names on the monument, I started to think about a long debate/argument I had with juris a while back on the incident at Waco with the Branch Davidians. In several key ways, what happened at Waco is very similar to what happened at Wounded Knee.

In both cases, the government had a complete lack of understanding of the religious aspects of each group. With Wounded Knee, it was the Ghost Dance. With Waco, it was the Seventh Day Adventist. In both cases, the government overreacted (due to this ignorance), made unforgivable mistakes, and innocent people died. In both cases there was institutionalized discrimination of religion and, in the case of Wounded Knee, race as well. L. Frank Baum, author of The Wizard of Oz, summed this up ugliness up quite nicely when he wrote in the Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer:

The Pioneer has before declared that our only safety depends upon the total extermination of the Indians. Having wronged them for centuries, we had better, in order to protect our civilization, follow it up by one more wrong and wipe these untamed and untameable creatures from the face of the earth. In this lies future safety for our settlers and the soldiers who are under incompetent commands. Otherwise, we may expect future years to be as full of trouble with the redskins as those have been in the past.

This particular quote reminds me quite a bit of the illegal immigrant diatribes we hear from the Cult Tribe these days but that's a topic for another day.

The juxtaposition of Wounded Knee and Waco does reveal stark differences however. In addition to the racism we see above, Wounded Knee was also the culmination of an extermination of the indigenous people of the North American continent. Americans at the time believed it was their Manifest Destiny to take this land. Sadly, this is all too similar to other periods of time and leaders who have justified wholesale massacre of people.

And there certainly weren't any widespread allegations of child abuse as there were with Waco. The Native Americans at Wounded Knee were animists and didn't have a central figure like David Koresh at whom they heaped psychotic worship upon.

Yet, the similarities between Waco and Wounded Knee can't be ignored. Of course, this doesn't mean that I'm going to go all Tea Bagger on all of you and hate the "Gubmint" but we do need to examine why this continues to happen. There is a decided leap to instant fear by people in this country to hate what they do not understand and act irrationally. This is true regardless of your political stripes. Because we are the government, they become the mechanism for this fear and the results are often tragic...as they were four days after Christmas one hundred and twenty years ago.

Back

For those of you who were wondering, I'm back after a vacation out to South Dakota. I saw many wonderful things with my baby blues and let me tell you all, I am a man transformed. The trip down to the Wounded Knee massacre site was quite humbling.

I will be talking about what I saw as well as many of the thoughts that I had rolling through my head as I had a massive download of Americana in the last four days. Stay tuned...

If He Were In Al Qaeda...

Last Sunday, Bryon Williams loaded up his car with guns and body armor and headed to the San Francisco offices of ACLU and the Tides Foundation. He was sick and tired of them and was going to send a message. Thankfully, the police stopped him in a shootout. More fortunately, the only injuries policed suffered were from broken glass. Police have said that Williams may not have been acting alone.

While it's possible that others may have been involved in aiding him or he may have been a part of a small group of malcontents on a lower level, the overall issue of him "acting alone" is not in question. Like Scott Roeder, Williams is yet another member of the Cult that just couldn't take it anymore.

The 45-year-old Groveland man has a history of anti-government and anti-corporation behavior, and a deep-rooted hate for liberal causes, authorities said. He reportedly ranted at one point about "the way Congress was railroading through all these left-wing agenda items," according to published reports.

Railroading through left wing agenda items? That's The Cult 101, baby.

Talking Points Memo has a story about how Glenn Beck has spent a lot of time discussing the Tides Foundation. No doubt, it's possible that this group will become another ACORN...falling victim to libel and entrapment in what clearly is the Cult goal of destroying any social causes. Beck has described at length how the real agenda behind Tides is more sinister.

The Tides Foundation, they started laying the groundwork on this back during the Reagan administration. They have been assembling an army that we have laughed at and have dismissed as a bunch of community organizers. "These people are bullies," Beck said. "These people are thugs."

Of course, Beck can't be held responsible for Williams' actions, right? I mean, it is OK to yell fire in a crowded theater, isn't it?

Of course it is in the land of the Cult. Sharon Angle, the Cult nominee in Nevada running against Harry Reid, had this to say.

You know, our Founding Fathers, they put that Second Amendment in there for a good reason and that was for the people to protect themselves against a tyrannical government. And in fact Thomas Jefferson said it's good for a country to have a revolution every 20 years.

I hope that's not where we're going, but, you know, if this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies and saying my goodness what can we do to turn this country around? I'll tell you the first thing we need to do is take Harry Reid out.

Taking people out is what Sarah Palin talked about when she put up this map (left) of the United States which literally targets Congressional candidates. Silly me, though, I'm sure I'm just imagining all of this. And, naturally, I'm "just as bad."

Dan Gainor, the Vice President of the Media Research Center (a Cult group), offered $100 to anyone who punches Democratic Florida Representative Alan Grayson in the face. Following this comment, came a death threat to the Congressman's office which claimed that "10 people are going to kill Grayson in the next 24 hours."

But again, correlation does not mean causation. I mean, my lyin' ears and eyes must be fibbing up a storm because Williams is a "lone nut" who is just like all the liberal loonies out there...loonies who are encouraged by Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosito to hurt or kill people. Silly me (again). I must remember that there is balance and that there are two sides (hurling sound of Mark throwing up in his mouth) to every story.

Indeed, comparisons should always be drawn. Because if Williams were a member of Al Qaeda...

Still Running The Show

As blk and I drove home from the fantastic film "Inception," our conversation turned to politics as it usually does. BLK has been trying to get me off of the Cult meme and shift into defining the current form of the GOP as being more tribal. His points are very well taken. They do behave in quite a tribe like fashion and I may shift some of my views on this slightly. Perhaps a tribal cult?

One of the points we poured over in amusement was how The Tribe (let's just try it out for this post and see how it works:)) really has only one goal: to win the argument. They do this by desperately trying to prove anyone left of them wrong. We see this in comments all the time in regards to yours truly. There's not really much critical thinking on my posts--just the driving force of proving me wrong. That's all that really matters. Reality certainly doesn't matter.

The same thing holds true for the issue of racism. The Tribe will never admit their obvious racism and take any chance they get to accuse the left of racism. Sonja Sotomayor is racist, for example, and Rush Limbaugh is most certainly not. They take great delight in sifting and searching for any racist remark made by non white people. If they find even a kernel of one, whoops of delight are seen exploding all over the blogsphere, the radio and Fox News. "See? They're racist!! So that means we're not!!!"

Take a look at what happened with Shirley Sherrod. Right wing blogger Andrew Brietbart wanted desperately to prove that the NAACP is racist--he wanted to win the argument--so he put up an edited video of Sherrod reflecting on her own struggles with bias. It turns out that the much longer version of the video paints a much different picture. In no way did she harm any white farmers in Georgia.

This whole incident proves a few things. To being with, it proves blk's point about how the Tribe is really only interested in winning. They aren't interested in confronting these issues in a serious way. They simply want to point and accuse others of what is, in reality, their problem. It also shows how people like Brietbart and Fox News get to be complete dicks and get away with it. BLK and I discussed this as well. People like Rush and Glenn Beck can say whatever they want and be assholes. Even elected GOP leaders can be dicks. In their assholeishness, they have created a seemingly fool proof position in which all outcomes are desirable. If they are ass hats with no response from the left, then the left is weak. If there is a response, then it's "Look at the rabid and insane Lib!" See, people expect the GOP to be rabid and insane so it's OK when they do it.

Best of all, though, is we have yet another answer to Last in Line's question. How can you still bitch about conservatives when they aren't in power?

Because nutless monkeys like Ben Jealous listen to them.

The Eye of the Beholder

"Mark, you are a fuckwit. Obama has betrayed us."
I didn't say anything as he was ranting. Sometimes it helps to let people get it all out.
"He is going to drive this country into the toilet. He is a traitor."
Finally I had to say something. I'd heard this so many times.
"What exactly is he doing to betray us or our country?"
"Everything. All of his policies," he spat back at me.
"So what are you saying, then?"
"Mark, Barack Obama is not a socialist. He's not a Democrat. He's a fucking country club Republican. In fact, all of the Democrats have betrayed me and I've had it. I'm joining the Socialist Party of America. There are not liberals in the Democratic Party."

The preceding conversation took place in my family room two Sundays ago with a friend whom we will call Greg. Truly, it was one of the most bizarre ones I have ever had. Greg spent most of the night getting drunk and screaming to me about a variety of issues. Needless to say, he is not a very happy person. He blames everyone else for his problems and feels that he is entitled to..well...anything he wants. No doubt, he would be a poster child for Fox News and Rush Limbaugh as a fine example the stereotype of the left. Glenn Beck would make a shit load of Greg and were he ever to find himself in the spotlight, it would be a fantastic coup for the Cult.

Of course, the most amusing thing about the whole exchange was how similar it was to the ones I have with my conservative pals. Take out the word "not" and everything else contains the same amount of anger and hate. On the one hand we have a group of people that think Obama is a socialist spewing vitriol and then we have others like Greg who spew equally that he is not.

So is he?

Well according to this poll, 55 percent of Americans say that he is a socialist. But we all know that polls are not always accurate.

A recent article in my favorite news publication, The Christian Science Monitor, looked at this issue in depth. For I think the first time in any news story related to the "Obama is a socialist meme," someone actually asked (gasp!) some socialists what they thought.

"I have been making a living telling people Obama is not a socialist," says Frank Llewellyn, national director of the Democratic Socialists of America. "It's frustrating to see people using our brand to criticize programs that have nothing to do with our brand and are not even working."Adds Billy Wharton,co-chair of the Socialist Party USA: "I am not even sure he's a liberal. I call him a hedge fund Democrat."

This jibes with what I have been saying all along. Politically speaking, he bears quite a bit more in common with Dwight Eisenhower than the socialists. The real problem is this:

What Mr. Johns [Heritage Foundation], Mr. Gingrich, and others brandishing the "socialist" s-word are really complaining of is a return to the policies of John Maynard Keynes, the English economist who advocated vigorous government involvement in the economy, from regulation to pump priming, says labor historian Peter Rachleff of Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn."Socialism suggests getting rid of capitalism altogether," says Dr. Rachleff. "Mr. Obama is not within a million miles of an ideology like that."

That's pretty much where I am at although I think in the current environment, Kenyes is woefully outdated. The current financial overhaul is certainly a step in the right direction. Let's see if it actually goes back to controlling private industry more effectively as was the case with Glass-Steagall. This control means no more making money by changing the rules and/or engaging in criminal activity...which is why Johns, Gingrich and other Cult leaders are so pissed off.

Invariably, when this topic also comes up, we hear stories of the federal government and GM. This is where the Cult spins its yarns.

The government has already used its ownership stake to impose sweeping mandates and regulations on the companies, such as closing hundreds of dealerships, he says."They forced changes in management that should more properly have been left to the company's private shareholders," says Johns.

Not true, according to GM. The US did not exert pressure to close the 1,100 shuttered dealerships, says spokeswoman Noreen Pratscher. "The government has taken a very hands-off approach."

A "hands off" approach? Well, that simply won't do. How dare GM say that the government has been hands off. That's not in the script!!!! Noreen must be a Feminazi. Or a Marxist. Or Hitler. Just pick one.

And what about AIG? That's got to be a great example of Obama's socialism. The federal government owns 80 percent of it, right? That is socialism.

There are two flaws in this theory, however. First, the takeover was actually begun under George W. Bush. Unless he is also secretly a socialist, the whining about Obama running AIG seems silly in light of this fact. Second,

The takeover of an ailing company whose collapse might ruin the US economy is not socialism, says Van Gosse, a Socialist and historian at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa. "Let's just say AIG was profitable, and you thought it was better if it was in public hands. That would be socialistic."

Yep. So, what exactly is Obama if not a socialist?

"FDR tried all kinds of things and was accused of all kinds of things," says Tom Cronin, a presidential scholar at Colorado College in Colorado Springs. "But in retrospect, he is someone who helped capitalism survive."

If President Obama is successful, that is exactly what he will be as well: The Savior of Capitalism...much to the chagrin of my pal Greg. I guess I better hide my liquor the next time he comes over.

Papers please, Juden

So, let me see if I have this straight. Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and the rest of the Democrats are all Nazis who are going to enslave us all and put our population into re-education camps. But Jason "JT" Ready is not a Nazi, is a true patriot, and will keep us all safe.

Apparently, Mr. Ready spends his days, along with some other members of the National Socialist Movement, patrolling our border for any illegals. "We're not going to sit around and wait for the government anymore," Ready said. "This is what our founding fathers did."

Hmm....haven't I heard that somewhere before? Verbatim?

Ready, a 37-year-old ex-Marine, is different. He and his friends are outfitted with military fatigues, body armor and gas masks, and carry assault rifles. Ready takes offense at the term "neo-Nazi," but admits he identifies with the National Socialist Movement.

I don't know about the rest of you but just the mere action of cutting and pasting this paragraph gave me an erection.

And he hates the term "neo-Nazi" but does identify himself with the National Socialist Movement? Makes perfect sense to me:)

Ready said he's planning patrols throughout the summer."If they don't want my people out there, then there's an easy way to send us home: Secure the border," he said. "We'll put our guns back on the shelf, and that'll be the end of that."

Isn't that the same thing that Sarah Palin said in the video I put up here a few days ago?

I wonder if Ready is enough of a meta-thinker that he might--just might--grasp Manzi's thoughts on immigration.

We should reconceptualize immigration as recruiting. Assimilating immigrants is a demonstrated core capability of America's political economy — and it is one we should take advantage of. A robust-yet-reasonable amount of immigration is healthy for America. It is a continuing source of vitality — and, in combination with birth rates around the replacement level, creates a sustainable rate of overall ­population growth and age-demographic balance.

We should think of immigration as an opportunity to improve our stock of human capital.

Anyone think Ready and others like him will understand this?

I won't hold my breath.

Corporate Force A Go Go

BLK sent me this piece recently. The basic gist of it is that corporations are now using their tool (literal and figurative) known as the government to jail people for not paying debts. Many of these debts aren't really debts at all. Some were paid off long ago and then re-surfaced as still being owed because...well...private corporations are douche bags and want to fuck people over...draining every last cent out of them that they can.

"The law enforcement system has unwittingly become a tool of the debt collectors," said Michael Kinkley, an attorney in Spokane, Wash., who has represented arrested debtors. "The debt collectors are abusing the system and intimidating people, and law enforcement is going along with it."

Yeah, but it still must be all about government power, right Cult members? Even though, debtors prisons were abolished a long time ago, our plutonomy has resurrected them again in keeping with their aristocratic fantasies.

Here is the follow up which essentially illustrates the shriveled penis also known as our government attempting to do something about it.

No Doubt...

From his analyses of interaction in different groups, Georg Simmel concluded that groups often find it convenient to think of nonmembers or outsiders as somehow inferior to members of the group. But why does this familiar in-group/out-group bias develop? Simmel explained it as arising out of the intensity of interactions within the group, which leads its members to feel that other groups are less important. Once they have identified another group as inferior, it is not a great leap to think of its members as enemies, especially because doing so increases their sense of solidarity.

A perfect summation of how I am viewed/treated at TSM. Even more ironic considering that Simmel was a neo-Marxist and a contributor to the Frankfurt School.

Cult=No Practical Application In Reality

What A Shame

For those of you cult members who have been spewing New Black Panther bullshit to me, or NBP (aka the new three letter acronym for Fox News), for the last week, take a look at this. Boy are you people fucking stupid.










Apparently, the decision not to file a criminal case on this matter occurred before Obama was even in office. The case was downgraded to a civil case ELEVEN DAYS BEFORE PRESIDENT OBAMA TOOK THE OATH OF OFFICE, TWENTY SIX DAYS BEFORE HOLDER WAS BECAME AG, AND NINE MONTHS BEFORE THOMAS PEREZ WAS PUT IN CHARGE OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS DIVISION. I put this all in caps for those of you who have trouble understanding time and facts. So, the reality is that it was the Bush Administration that thought there was nothing much to this case at all. I guess that means they support the anti-white racism of the NBP, according to Cult logic.

The other thing that is just fucking hilarious about this whole story is that the precinct in which the "voter intimidation" occurred is a heavily Democratic district? Why would they intimidate their own voters? Unless they were simply a thuggish group of assholes, much like the Phelps buttholes, that have no relationship whatsoever with the Obama administration...except the fact that they are black.

Hmmm....I wonder if Cult members understand that black people don't all think the same...

As to why the Obama administration dropped the civil case, here is a pretty thorough explanation.

The decision not to further pursue the civil case reflected long-standing practice regarding Section 11(b), which prior to the Bush administration had last been used to stop a statewide voter-caging effort. The allegation that would have supported pursuing a broader case was the idea that there was a nationwide effort to place New Black Panthers at polling stations for the purpose of suppressing white votes -- the original complaint read that the NBPP "made statements and posted notice that over 300 members of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense would be deployed at polling locations during voting on November 4, 2008, throughout the United States." The career attorneys recommended dismissing the case on the basis that there wasn't enough evidence to support that claim.

Seems pretty obvious and straight forward to me. But I know that Barack Obama was born in the United States.

Sweet

I was just about to revise my numbers upward for GOP gains in the fall when three things happened.

First, some Rand Paul classics have surfaced with him discussing the evils of Social Security and Medicare. One of the gimme seats for the GOP has now become a neck and neck race with Dem Jack Conway polling even with Paul. Rand-O might want to consider that old people are usually the ones who vote in higher numbers and while many may hate the government, they love their Social Security and Medicare.

By the way, I'm still waiting for one of my conservative readers to explain to me what would've happened to all that Social Security money had it been privatized prior to 2008. Ed? Anyone?

Second, we have David Vitter, still the GOP nominee despite the fact that he admitted to having sex with prostitutes. Not a big deal for me because I think it should be legalized anyway but I have to laugh at the people that support him but yell about Tim Geithner not paying his taxes or Rangel's lawbreaking. It's not __________ when we do it!!

Anyway, ol' Dave had this to say about the birther lawsuits.

I support conservative legal organizations and others who would bring that to court. I think that is the valid and most possibly effective grounds to do it.

Wow. I wonder if this will affect his lead in the polls. And didn't President Obama already produce his birth certificate? I know...I know....I just don't get it.

But Michelle Bachmann certainly gets it. Appearing at a right wing conference in Colorado, Bachmann had this to say about our current leadership.

We will talk a little bit about what has transpired in the last 18 months and would we count what has transpired into turning our country into a nation of slaves.

I'm sorry but I have to laugh. I was raked over the coals for using the word "slaves" as a metaphor in a discussion about corporate power over at TSM and I have yet to hear a peep about Bachmann's use of the word. It's not ______ when we do it!!

Honestly, I really can't wait until the party really gets started after Labor Day. It's going to be a real treat to see these three, Palin, and Engle saying things on camera.

And my numbers stay the same...20 lost in the house and 5 in the Senate.