Serendipity

Given the recent line of comments in various threads and what we here daily from the GOP, I thought this quote would very appropriate today.

What is objectionable, what is dangerous about extremists, is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents.
--Robert Kennedy

Just...wow...

Even I didn't see this one coming.

Amazing.

Last Night

I was looking for one thing in last night's speech by President Obama regarding our country's new direction in AfPak. This was it.

In the past, we too often defined our relationship with Pakistan narrowly. Those days are over. Moving forward, we are committed to a partnership with Pakistan that is built on a foundation of mutual interests, mutual respect, and mutual trust. We will strengthen Pakistan's capacity to target those groups that threaten our countries, and have made it clear that we cannot tolerate a safe-haven for terrorists whose location is known, and whose intentions are clear. America is also providing substantial resources to support Pakistan's democracy and development. We are the largest international supporter for those Pakistanis displaced by the fighting. And going forward, the Pakistani people must know: America will remain a strong supporter of Pakistan's security and prosperity long after the guns have fallen silent, so that the great potential of its people can be unleashed.

My chief complaint thus far regarding President Obama's policy in AfPak has been relying to heavily on the weak government of Pakistan to go after Al Qaeda. It appears "those days are over. " I fully support the President in this endeavor and think that we will be, by and large, successful now that a more thorough plan for AfPak has been created.

Most Excellent, Sir...

In a recent thread over at TSM, a commenter named Mastiff left this most excellent post.

A primer in the proper relationship between intellect and emotion, according to Jewish mysticism.

You can imagine the human mind as being made of two components: the rational mind, and the emotional mind.

The rational mind can reason, but cannot impel action. In this model, it takes emotion to do that. A person totally devoid of emotion would starve to death.

If you decide on a course of action with the rational mind, and then lend motive force to your decisions with the emotional mind, then you are doing things the right way. For example, considering the phenomenon of slavery with the rational mind, you conclude that it is a gross offense against humanity. Then, your emotional mind conveys the full force of what that means, driving you with anger and righteous fury to do something about it.

If you decide on a course of action with your emotional mind, and then let your rational mind justify a decision already made (i.e. engage in "rationalization"), you are doing things the wrong way. For example, you want to have sex with a drunk girl. Therefore, you direct your rational mind to justify the decision to have sex ("she knew what could happen, she clearly wants it, she won't remember anyway," etc.), so that your conscience does not interfere with the pleasure of the act. Or less so, anyway.

As we watch President Obama's prime time address tomorrow night regarding his plan for Afghanistan, pay attention to the reaction. Who are the ones that "let their rational minds justify a decision already made?"

I've been thinking quite a bit lately about the classic "liberals lead with their feelings, conservatives lead with thinking" meme. I believe it was Last in Line that first uttered that little ditty on here way back in the day. I think I've heard it said...oh...A BAZILLION TIMES....since then by pretty much every conservative I know.

In fact, it was recently repeated at the gym by an airport policeman I have become friendly with of late. He went on to say that's why most women are liberal because they lead more with their feelings. Of course, right after he said this a woman walked up to him and told him she was conservative and he was full of shit which I found amusing.

I then proceeded to ask both of them who they thought kept the country safer...Dick Cheney or Barack Obama? They both chuckled and said "Dick Cheney, of course!!" When I asked them what their basis for this was, they gave me several "thinking" (not "feeling") gems such as "Obama's weak...he talks to our enemies" and "Cheney's not afraid to do what it takes to win...like put the screws to the terrorists." When they asked me who I thought was a better leader, national security wise, I said President Obama. They laughed and wondered why.

I said that, unlike Bush and Cheney, President Obama is actually going to increase the troop levels significantly in Afghanistan. In fact, he'll have done it twice. I told them that it's been over 8 years and we still haven't caught or killed Osama bin Laden or Ayman Al Zawahari...the two men who lead Al Qaeda...who were responsible for the worst attack in our country's history....an attack which occurred on the watch of Dick Cheney. Naturally, they proceeded to blame Bill Clinton and said I was being "mean" to Dick. After reading them Mastiff's 5th paragraph above and perfectly illustrating how they were the living embodiment of it (as is the majority of the GOP base these days), they then became furious and the woman called me a traitor...walking away saying she couldn't talk to me because I "hated America."

Eh, well...as long as they say "I think you are a traitor" instead of "I feel you are a traitor." That makes it all OK.

Oh Yeah?

Hey, Dick...I have two words for and your dithering ass...

Fuck (and) Off.

Thankful for the Truth

For those of you who want to know what ACTUALLY happened on the first Thanksgiving, check this out.

Origin myths do not come cheaply. To glorify the Pilgrims is dangerous. The genial omissions and false details our texts use to retail the Pilgrim legend promote Anglocentrism, which only handicaps us when dealing with all those whose culture is not Anglo. Surely, in history, "truth should be held sacred, at whatever cost."

Simply Beautiful

They had SEVEN YEARS to get Afghanistan right, and now they accuse Obama of "dithering."

---blk in comments.

Remember, they can make believe anything they want:)

Attack! Kill! Now!

Recently, Dick Cheney accused President Obama of "dithering" on Afghanistan. As expected, the right has pounced on this and fallen back into the "Obama is weak, they's a comin', he'll encourage terrorists to attack us" meme. Many have said that the president should listen to Generals MacChyrstal and Patraeus and approve the troop surge immediately.

The only problem with this opinion is that's not what General Patraeus has said. From the Defense Department web site.

n Iraq, getting the right strategy was just as important as the surge in personnel, the general said. “The real key in Iraq was the surge of ideas, not just the surge of troops,” Petraeus said. “Yes, the 30,000 additional troops that ended up being deployed during the surge enabled us to … implement time-honored counterinsurgency concepts more effectively and more rapidly than we could have.”

Multinational forces began living in the communities. They began protecting the people and securing their neighborhoods. “You cannot commute to the fight,” Petraeus said, and the command built 77 stations for coalition forces in Baghdad alone.

As attention shifts to Afghanistan, Petraeus said, people must remember that Afghanistan is not Iraq.

“All counterinsurgencies are local,” he explained. “You have to recognize the need for a truly nuanced and granular appreciation for local circumstances.”

Americans going to the country must understand the local customs and culture and the local power structures. “We are trying to help Afghanistan re-establish traditional ruling structures: the traditional [religious leaders], the traditional tribal leaders, who in many areas have been pushed aside, or killed, or run off by the Taliban or the more extreme leaders,” he said.

Wait, what? General Patraeus has said that it's a good thing to wait and get it right? Hmm, I wonder how long it will take for the base to call him General "Betray Us."

Corporate Abuse

Recently, I was asked in comments

What specific power has a corporation used to abuse you?"

Setting aside the fact that only an ostrich with his head buried quite deeply in the sand couldn't see how corporations of this country abuse and essentially enslave us, I do actually have a specific example.

Take a look at this postcard (left) I received in the mail from Center Point Energy, a private corporation.

If you do not call immediately, Centerpoint Energy will be required to take appropriate legal action to obtain access.

This is not the federal government trying to beat down my door. This is a PRIVATE company.

The only mention of the government in all of this is a federal statue that says that this private company can invade my home any time they want to and if I don't let them, then they can...what exactly? Sue me? Send Blackwater agents into my house to subdue my family and inspect the meter?

What's funny is that it's not even Center Point that does the inspections. It's a sub contractor. I did call and have someone come to my home. This company, RMR services, caught blazing hellfire for this card from Centerpoint customers...which is pretty much anyone with a furnace in my area. In fact, they are the only choice I have for gas in my area. So much for free will. Oh wait. That's right. I can burn a pile of wood in my front room. Great.

Someone care to explain to me how the "gubmint" is running the show here? It seems to me that Centerpoint greased the politicians to essentially have an organized monopoly and uses them if they need a tool to get into my home. Wooo-wee...them Feds have got me a quakin' now!

They's A Comin'

Talking Points Memo has an excellent piece today on the silly arguments about bringing the Gitmo detainees here to the continental US. There are many points made in the article that are quite accurate but my favorite is this one regarding the wetting of the pants by the right by what hirabis might say in court.

I cannot imagine anything KSM or his confederates would say that would diminish America or damage us in any way. Are we really so worried that what we represent is so questionable or our identity so brittle?

Yes, it is. Or, more specifically, their faith is weak. And by "they" you know who I am talking about. In essence, the central and motivating factor for the behavior of the right is that they really aren't very secure in their beliefs. It's why they accuse the left of going more with their "feelings" than their reason...ludicrous because, in addition to being the WORST fucking example of giving in to emotion, we are human beings who (gasp!) do have emotion. It's also ludicrous considering fear is all they really know.

It's why they have to have more people believe as they do otherwise there's a chance they might be wrong because less do. So, it's either you're with us or agin' us. Things have to be simple because complexity leads to doubt. And there can be no doubt. It's why they can't admit fault because their insecurity is so great that to do so would mean the end times.

The fact is that there is nothing the Kalid Sheik Mohammed could say that would change America. We are a country based on freedom and peace. He is a mass murderer who believes in putting the world in chains. The more he rants, the better it is for the world to see how much more integrity we have.

Quaking With Fear

I've had a few debates here and more than several over at TSM regarding government power. My friends on the right are convinced that government has more power than ever before. I contend that the real power lies within the private sector and the people that run our government are simply stoolies for the corporations of this country. I have pointed to K street and the massive growth of lobbyists as evidence but conservatives will not budge. The "Gubmint" is threatening me with a gun, they cry. Corporations are not.

Yet, an article in today's New York Times seems to suggest otherwise. Genentech, a bioengineering company, sent several talking points, through emails from lobbyists, to members of both parties. These talking points, in some cases the same language, were used in speeches on the floor of Congress during the debate over the health care bill. Essentially, we have a private company shaping policy and directing communication over a public issue: health care. I suspect that this will not be the only example to come to light.

Wow, folks. I'm quaking with fear at the awesome power of our "gubmint" who can now plainly be seen as nothing but over glorified middle men pretending to serve the public. Let's just dispense with the pretense (and the waste of tax payer money) and have the corporations of this country appoint a CEO of America INC.

Barf.

Back to the Bill

If I could pick one complaint about the House version of the health bill, I would say it really does seem to give insurance companies a break. A few of the Democrats that voted against the bill, including Dennis Kucinich, did so because of the mandate that decrees that everyone must have health insurance. If you can't afford it, the federal government would provide subsidies to insurance companies so that you can have insurance.

My question is how is this any different than bailing out AIG?

To me, this part of the new bill is reminiscent of Massachusetts universal care which vastly benefits the private sector. One way or another, the Man is getting his third vacation home with our money.

Of course, I can bitch about this all I want but I don't really see another alternative. Corporations of this country are so powerful that there will NEVER be a system like there is in Canada or Great Britain. And, with at least 30 million people believing that any government run system is going to cause our country to become EXACTLY like the Soviet Union in the year 1955, our plutonomy is going to roll merrily along.

Honor Them.

Find a veteran today, touch them on the arm, look in their eyes, and say thank you.

The Restroom Urinal at the Train Station

Bill Maher is right. The "public option" does indeed sound like the urinal at the train station. Who would want the public option? It just sounds gross. You can almost smell how disgusting it is.

The Congressional Budget Office, however, seems to think that the public option is no big deal. In fact, in a letter sent to the House, the CBO estimates that the public option portion of the bill will only attract about 6 million enrollees. They estimate that most Americans will stay with their private plans. They also estimate that the bill will reduce the deficit by 104 billion dollars over 10 years.

The CBO goes on to say that the public option would likely charge higher premiums than private insurers. This is due to their estimate that the people who would seek the public option would be higher risk patients and the fact that the public option would “engage in less management of utilization." So, the contention that the public option would drive private insurance out of business is not accurate.

Here is the CBO's breakdown of both the House bill and the Senate Bill.

CBO Score Of House Bill	CBO Score Of Baucus Bill
Costs	Reduce deficits: $104B/10yrs Cost: $894B/10yrs Spends on subsidies: $605B/10yrs On Medicaid/CHIP: $425B/10yrs On Small Employer Credit: $25B/10yrs	Reduce deficits: $81B/10yrs Cost: $829B/10yrs Spends on subsidies: $461B/10yrs On Medicaid/CHIP: $345B/10yrs On Small Employer Credit: $23B/10yrs
Insured	Uninsured reduced by: 36M Uninsured in 2019: 18M In Exchanges: 30M | Public Plan: 6M In Medicaid: 15M	Uninsured reduced by: 29M Uninsured in 2019: 25M In Exchanges: 23M In Medicaid: 14M
Revenue	Mandate penalty: $33B/10yrs Pay-Play penalty: $135B/10yrs New taxes: $572B/10yrs	Mandate penalty: $4B/10yrs Free rider penalty: $23B/10yrs New taxes: $196B/10yrs
Medicare and Medicaid	Total savings: 426B/10yrs Medicare Advantage: $170B/10yrs	Total savings: 404B/10yrs Medicare Advantage: $117B/10yrs

Now, the CBO has been touted by those who are against this bill as being sound financially. One would think this would be good news for them. In addition, if only six million people are going to use the program, that isn't exactly a "Soviet style takeover."

So, the bill...

Late Saturday night, the United States House of Representatives passed landmark health care legislation by a vote of 220-215. Over the next few days, we'll be taking a look at what's in the bill and what it means for you. Rather than tackle everything at once, I thought I would focus on one part per day (and perhaps the strands that trail out from that) and discuss it.

Many of you have asked me why I support a bill like this even though there are items in it that I would not find agreeable. For the first couple of days, I'm going to talk why I supported this bill singling out those specific points which I think have merit. The first one is the ejection from the capsule of pre-existing conditions. Thank God.

Under this new bill, a person can't be denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition. Not only do I support this from the point of view of a human being but it also makes sound financial sense. If someone is denied coverage but ends up in the ER or in ICU, the rest of us will still end up paying for it through higher premiums. Without this regulation in place, less and less people will be able to afford health care because insurance companies will simply raise their rates. Has anyone ever seen them go down?

Of course, the argument could be made that we could just let these people die but I think we are a better country than that. Somehow, their care is going to have to be paid for and whether it's through the government or private insurance, we will be the ones to pay. The insurance industry has shown that it has done a poor job regulating itself. Even with their higher premiums, they still needed to be bailed out by Uncle Sam (AIG etc) and then used that money for lavish vacation retreats (see: US plutonomy).

The government certainly isn't the perfect mechanism for this but what is the alternative?

220-215

The House passed its version of the health care bill last night in a vote of 220 to 215. Interestingly, one Republican, Joseph Cao from Louisiana, voted for the bill. "I have always said that I would put aside partisan wrangling to do the business of the people. My vote tonight was based on my priority of doing what is best for my constituents," Cao said. Maybe there is some hope for the Republican Party after all.

I was also interested at the bipartisan press conference after the signing in which both sides claimed victory and said they were happy (??) with the bill. For the Republicans, this was largely due to the Stupak amendment that bans federal money for abortions.

So my initial thoughts are fairly positive. In listening to Michelle Bachmann, it sounded like we were all going to be thrown into a boiling pit of sewage. I also thought the partisanship would turn even more acrimonious. Tomorrow, I'll start putting up some of the finer points of the bill and we can talk about them.

Reaching Out

We've been talking about "reaching out" to the right in comments lately so I thought I would share a recent Facebook status update of a friend of mine whom I call John Smith.

JOHN SMITH is going to grill meat and use lots of coals to emit as much carbon as possible and piss of the global warming nut jobs.

So, my question is this...how do I reach out to John, hmm?

Without Comment

Yep, pretty much.

Recovering conservative, Frank Schaeffer has had quite a bit to say these days about his former party. Schaeffer, whose father was close to President Reagan, President Bush (41), President Ford and Jack Kemp, has a new book out entitled Patience with God: Faith for People Who Don't Like Religion (or Atheism) and has been ripping out some zingers on his tour hawking it. Here are a few choice ones with which I happen to agree.

Combined with the fact that we began to lose parts of the culture war, when it came to other Americans beginning to recognize gay rights, expanding women's rights, abortion rights and such, the Religious Right and the Republican Party infected gun-toting America with a chip on its shoulder about a mile wide. This led to the myth that "they" (fill in the blank, gays, Jews, blacks, liberals --- whatever) are "taking away our country from 'us'"...

This would be the fear of the "other" that I have been talking about lately.

Conservative" means that you believe it's right to legalize torture, but reject health care for all.

Wow. I've never heard it put so succinctly before but yes, that is what it means to be conservative.

These days to be a conservative means that you hate the United States government elected by the people and believe that if millions of citizens are out of work that it's their own fault and that the rest of the community should not help them by spending tax dollars.

Yep.

To be a conservative means you believe that healthcare reform will lead to "death panels"; that the president of the United States is not a "real American"; that a university education is a dangerous thing; that Americans who live in big cities are less American than those who live in small towns; that brown people, blacks, progressive whites, gays, public school teachers, Hispanics, immigrants, are somehow conspiring to subvert the "real America" with a "gay agenda" or a "Muslim agenda" or at least the browning of "our" white America.

Oh no he di-int! The right is not racist!!! THE RIGHT IS NOT RACIST!!! THE RIGHT IS NOT RACIST!!! THE RIGHT IS NOT RACIST!!! THE RIGHT IS NOT RACIST!!! THE RIGHT IS NOT RACIST!!! THE RIGHT IS NOT RACIST!!!

(keep chanting this and maybe someday it will be true)

And now, the coup de grace.

In other words to be a conservative today is to be an anti-American, nihilistic libertarian know-nothing who believes in unregulated consumerism and the theology of dominion. It is in fact what conservatives of the 60s said the hippies were: selfish brats with no sense of responsibility to anyone. It's also a party of armed revolution not so subtly egging on its lunatic fringe to commit violence. It applauds white rubes who show up at public meetings carrying loaded assault weapons "to make a point" and signs reminiscent of Timothy McVeigh and his famous T-shirt; "the tree of Liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants" and the like are held up by Murdoch/Beck/Fox and company --- those profiteers off the unregulated market --- as paragons of good sense and free enterprise and gun rights.

My question for conservatives who post here...how is he wrong? Virtually everything I have seen over the years on this blog and in discussions with the right adheres to the paragraph above. And it's getting worse every day.

Of course, it's not enough just to rip the psychotics who run the GOP now. What should they actually be?

An actual conservative believes in community and accountability to a moral tradition that puts the greater good of others ahead of oneself. Take a look at the way the very conservative communities of New England's Puritan towns were arranged around the village green known as "the commons."

Shared public spaces were owned by the community, for instance grazing land, and town meetinghouses. People were obliged to show up and participate in the fledgling democracy and vote. Taxes were dispensed by committees for charitable purposes. A duty to government and obligations placed on citizens by other citizens --- when it came to putting the life of the community ahead of the self --- were the norm. The free-market and individual enterprise were strictly curtailed based on not just the needs of the community but, when it came to things like banking and lending, the Old Testament teachings that frowned on "usury" --- in other words banks making more money than they should from ordinary people-- were upheld.

And the line that is sure to explode heads...

President Obama is a conservative. He believes in the brotherhood of all people. He believes in the freedom of the individual to make moral decisions. He believes that sexuality, religion and skin color should not define us but the content of our characters should define us. He believes that we are our brother's keeper. He believes in loyalty to community and country --- in other words patriotism, whether that's the honor of serving in the military or the honor of paying taxes to support not just national defense but how we treat what the Bible calls the least amongst us.

I agree completely. And I think many on the right know this which is why they have become hyper ragers right now. How dare President Obama try to out conservative the conservatives! Let's paint a Hitler moustache on him and scare some people. Yeah, that'll work!

Mr. Schaeffer's right, dudes. What the fuck happened to your party?

Liberal Media Watch

The media is all liberally biased, right?

"GOP hopes rekindled" (headline from MSNBC)

"Blow to Obama" (headline from MSNBC)

"GOP Scores Big on Election Night" (headline from CNN)

"GOP Rules Election Night" (headline from CNN)

"Setback to Obama" (NY Times headline)

"Victories seen as a sharp blow to Democrats and showed the limits of President Obama's political clout." (Comcast News headline)

Hmm...I thought the media were in the tank for President Obama. It couldn't possibly be they just want to SELL something...anything....no matter who their audience is, now could it?

This same "liberal media" has also buried the story of the loss by the Republicans in NY-23. Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck all got behind the "real" conservative, Doug Hoffman. It was quite a scene of GOP infighting which resulted in the election of a Democrat, Bill Owens -- the first Democratic congressman from that region since Ulysses S Grant was president. In fact, the "fake" Republican, Dede Scozzafava, that was forced to drop out of the race by the psychotics that are currently running the GOP ended up backing Owens. Huh. Isn't that interesting? Perhaps there aren't as many "real" Republicans out there as Rush, Glenn, and Sara would like to think. How sad...

Anyway, I don't buy into the media's "The GOP Are Back!!!" meme. If they were, NY -23 would be in Hoffman's hands. As it stands, a very conservative state (VA) voted for a Republican (gosh, what a shock) and New Jersey voted out the guy who was up to his eyeballs in Goldman Sachs kickbacks. Whoopity Doo!

Wow

I share that fear, and I believe they should be fearful. And I believe the greatest fear that we all should have to our freedom comes from this room, this very room. And what may happen later this week, in terms of a tax increase bill masquerading as a health care bill. I believe we have more to fear from the potential of that bill passing than we do from any terrorist right now in any country.

It makes my heart all warm and fuzzy to know that the right at least aren't trying to hide it anymore. How many times did she use the word "fear?"

Ah well, as long as they are being rational about it and grounding their assertions in facts and logic while strictly adhering to the scientific method.

Chest Thumping

In what was quite possibly one of the most amusing screeds by the right in the last few years, Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism failed (see: completely) to address the issue of nationalism. You can't complain about a group of individuals (liberals) and label them America "haters" while, at the same time, calling them fascists. It's akin to criticizing a political party or a country of too little government control and then walking away, screaming, "Commies!"

A key tenet of fascism is a fierce sense of nationalism. A recent article by Neal Gabler illustrates the fact that the right are the ones that have this key ingredient of fascism.

There is nothing wrong with self-satisfaction or national pride. But the incessant trumpeting of our national superiority to every other country in the world is more than just off-putting and insulting. It is infantile, like the vaunting of a schoolyard bully that his Dad is better than your Dad. It is wrong. And it might be dangerous both to ourselves and to the rest of the world.

It also doesn't work. We live in a global economy now and it is simply good business to understand and get along with other cultures. Wait. Sorry. I just realized that the words "understand" and "get along with" when used in conjunction with the right can probably only exist on one place in the world.

Fantasy Island.

Just....Wow.

Take a look at this picture I received in an email forward recently. Click on it for a bigger image.

Really?

FUCKING REALLY????!!!????

Setting aside the obvious offense to women everywhere, it is yet another nauseating example of male stereotyping which will sadly lead to more men thinking this is "cool."

Every fucking day I turn on the TV and all I see are commercials which portray men as essentially enjoying four things: eating, sleeping, watching TV, and playing video games. Each ad somehow manages to make them look moronic doing each of them. I am sick and tired of it.

Men are NOT simple creatures. We have just as many complex emotions as women do. The main reason why men are so fucked up in our culture is that their sociocultural context has told them that this fucking TV remote pictured above is the ideal. Never has their been a larger or smellier load of shit.

To say that I loathe this picture is the understatement of...forever. In fact, add up my dislike of Michelle Bachmann, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, and Michelle Malkin and it is still but a thimble full of hatred compared to the above image of the "Male" in the year 2009. But that's not even the worst part.

The fact is that this stereotype comes from somewhere as all stereotypes do. There ARE guys like this and some who probably find it funny. More than likely, they are beyond hope. But this certainly doesn't help the ones that aren't. So, shit like this pushes the ones that don't think this is funny into going with the flow and the cycle of the "Buffoon Man" continues.

What a giant load of diarrhea.

Blow Away, Dudes

Check out this article from the New York Times regarding the Department of Justice's decision to cease pursuing medical marijuana stores in various states where it is legal across the country. Honestly, I never thought I would see it happen but it's finally up to the states now.

I have no doubt that my state will be the LAST one in the US to ease any sort of marijuana restrictions (see: 90 foot pole up ass on any sort of happy, fun time) but I am still quite pleased. It's insane that this drug is not legal. The illegality of it has caused our already over filled jails to be filled more and has fueled the Mexican drug cartels violence. States can now pursue sensible restrictions and penalties that don't send someone to jail for a minimum of 25 years.

And an extra stream of tax revenue will mean help for states like California who are having severe budget problems.

But the best part? Certain people have to now admit that the words "less federal government" and "the Obama administration" must be used in tandem. Hee Hee....

Quaking With Fear

It's quite an amusing thing to get into a discussion with a conservative these days. As the eyes turn wild with paranoia and fear, the mouth begins to froth. Screams of "statism" and "liberal fascists" begin to be heard as the explanation (fully based on logic and facts...not!) of how all liberals are on one giant power crab is heard at very loud tone.

"That bitch in the House!!!!"

was the first comment from my Uncle Bill when the subject of politics came up. Yeah, good thing the right doesn't lead with their feelings.

But the power grab thing has always cracked me up. Juxtapose what the right says about the twirling moustache liberals thirst for power with a recent statement from Harry "Milktoast" Reid.

We’re leaning towards talking about a public option.

Wow. I am overwhelmed by his Hitleresque statements and tactics. He's a comin' to git ya! Hide your guns and children...

A True Hero

I am here today because of a conversation I had last June when I was voting. A woman at my polling place asked me, "Do you believe in equal, equality for gay and lesbian people?" I was pretty surprised to be asked a question like that. It made no sense to me. Finally I asked her, "What do you think our boys fought for at Omaha Beach?" I haven't seen much, so much blood and guts, so much suffering, much sacrifice. For what? For freedom and equality. These are the values that give America a great nation, one worth dying for.

Amen, Phillip. Thank you for your service.

File Under: No Shit

Apparently, the Secret Service is seeing an increased level of death threats against President Obama, more so than any other president.

Gee, I'm shocked.

For months we have been hearing much downplaying from the right about how "all presidents get threats" blah blah blah.

But the Boston Globe is now reporting that the Secret Service is not tasked to handle all of these new threats and may need to re-tool it's mission.

The unprecedented number of death threats against President Obama, a rise in racist hate groups, and a new wave of antigovernment fervor threaten to overwhelm the US Secret Service, according to government officials and reports, raising new questions about the 144-year-old agency’s overall mission.

Remember the Brooklyn Park incident from a while back? Check this out.

Two days before Obama’s appearance at San Francisco fund-raisers on Thursday, a 59-year-old Northern California man was indicted on charges of sending a racist, profanity-filled e-mail threatening to kill Obama and his family. The rambling e-mail included specific references to Michelle Obama and the phrase, “do it to his children and family first in front of him,’’ according to the indictment.

Yeah, BP was an "isolated" incident.

Oh, and it was nice to this "highly disputed" report again.

The Southern Poverty Law Center says that antigovernment militias and white supremacist groups have strengthened in recent years, responding to an increasingly diverse population and what they see as an expanding government.

A center study released in August found a nearly 35 percent growth in racially based domestic hate groups since 2000 - from 602 to 926. The center concluded that opposition to Obama’s election has only increased the phenomenon.

“A key difference this time is that the federal government - the entity that almost the entire radical right views as its primary enemy - is headed by a black man,’’ the report said. “One result has been a remarkable rash of domestic terror incidents since the presidential campaign, most of them related to anger over the election of Barack Obama.’’

They're just a bunch of leftists down there at the SPLC so I wouldn't pay them no never mind.

And it's a good thing that we have Rush, Glenn Beck, and a zillion other pundits encouraging so much love and affection for the president. I'm sure that their listeners can tell that they are only entertainers.

Bono and National Security Advisor James Jones?

A reader sent me this link from the New York Times.

The general and I also found ourselves talking about what can happen when the three extremes — poverty, ideology and climate — come together. We found ourselves discussing the stretch of land that runs across the continent of Africa, just along the creeping sands of the Sahara — an area that includes Sudan and northern Nigeria. He also agreed that many people didn’t see that the Horn of Africa — the troubled region that encompasses Somalia and Ethiopia — is a classic case of the three extremes becoming an unholy trinity (I’m paraphrasing) and threatening peace and stability around the world.

The military man also offered me an equation. Stability = security + development. In an asymmetrical war, he said, the emphasis had to be on making American foreign policy conform to that formula.

Meanwhile in ass hat land...

Obama is giving the American immune system AIDS.

...but if you support this weakening of our defenses and the politicians that call for them, then you become responsible for the consequences of the next attack

Huh. Now which side is it that is divisive and hyper paranoid?

Sitting in Wonder

From AP.

The Pentagon's personnel chief said Tuesday the military has completed its best recruiting year since 1973, meeting all its goals and bringing in a better educated group of young people.

The Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps met goals for active duty and reserve recruiting during the budget year ended Sept. 30 — the first time that has happened since the all-volunteer force was established, said Defense Department head of personnel Bill Carr.

Hmmph. Now I wonder why that is? Could it be anything at all to do with having a president who actually takes his time in deciding whether or not to send troops into harm's way? One that cares about the troops and their families?

One that respects them and their sacrifice?

A Better Day

Rather than celebrate a complete fucking lie (Columbus Day), why not honor the memory of Matthew Shepard who was brutally murdered 11 years ago today? You can start by thanking the Lord we have a president who said this last Saturday.

We should not be punishing patriotic Americans who have stepped forward to serve the country. We should be celebrating their willingness to step forward and show such courage ... especially when we are fighting two wars. I will end don't ask-don't tell.

Say goodbye to the Defense of Marriage Act soon as well.

Buh-bye.

The Blessed Glow of Complete Vindication

Something has happened that we agree with the Taliban and Iran...he doesn't deserve the award.

-Boss Limbaugh, on the Nobel Peace Prize award given to President Obama.

Now, who was it that said that our fundamentalists and their fundamentalists are pretty much the fucking same?

Republicans support...rape?

I just received this letter in my email box from Senator Al Franken.

Dear Mark,

I'm really excited to send you this message! Now, I know what you're thinking. Normally when I say that, I inevitably follow with something like, 'Please click here to donate today,' but not this time.

Today, I actually mean it.

It's not that we don't genuinely need the help of our phenomenal grassroots donors, we do. But after spending two years talking about what I planned to do if elected, it's an incredible feeling to finally get you up to speed on what we've gotten done.

Last Thursday, I offered an amendment to the 2010 Defense Appropriations Bill that would stop funding defense contractors who deny victims of sexual assault their day in court. My efforts were inspired by Jamie Leigh Jones, whose story is a chilling call-to-action, and whose actions to right this wrong a stunning profile in courage.

When Jamie was 19, she was working for then Halliburton subsidiary KBR in Iraq, where she was placed in a barracks with 400 men. She complained about sexual harassment, but KBR took no action and she was eventually drugged and gang-raped by co-workers. When she tried to report what had happened, KBR locked her in a shipping container under armed guard. One of her guards smuggled her a cell phone, which she used to call her dad. Her dad and her Congressman got her back to the States.

Once Jamie was back with her family, she discovered that the fine print in her contract with KBR prevented her from taking her case to court. Since then, she's been telling and retelling her story around the country, fighting on behalf of victims of sexual violence.

Yesterday, by a vote of 68-30, the United States Senate adopted the Jamie Leigh Jones Amendment, ensuring that employers cannot unfairly force victims of sexual assault into arbitration. While Jamie's fight is not over, from now on victims will have a better shot at seeking something that far too often eludes them: justice.

I was honored and humbled to play a small role in seeing this amendment passed, and am so pleased to let you all know today that while Minnesota, and the country, face serious challenges, we're making some progress on standing up for those who have previously been without a voice in Washington.

Thanks so much for your support, I'll be sending more updates soon.

All the best,

Al

The first thing that struck me right off the bat was...who in the fuck were the 30 assholes who voted against this amendment? Let's find out, shall we? Here is the list.

NAYs ---30
Alexander (R-TN) Barrasso (R-WY) Bond (R-MO) Brownback (R-KS) Bunning (R-KY) Burr (R-NC) Chambliss (R-GA) Coburn (R-OK) Cochran (R-MS) Corker (R-TN)	Cornyn (R-TX) Crapo (R-ID) DeMint (R-SC) Ensign (R-NV) Enzi (R-WY) Graham (R-SC) Gregg (R-NH) Inhofe (R-OK) Isakson (R-GA) Johanns (R-NE)	Kyl (R-AZ) McCain (R-AZ) McConnell (R-KY) Risch (R-ID) Roberts (R-KS) Sessions (R-AL) Shelby (R-AL) Thune (R-SD) Vitter (R-LA) Wicker (R-MS)

What a fucking shock...a bunch of white, male, rednecks all of whom are up their eyeballs in giving rim jobs to corporations like KBR and Haliburton.

I've heard a lot of shit from the right about how more government takes away people's rights. What about the rights of Jamie Leigh Jones? Here is a prime example of how a private company is doing EXACTLY what the right fears will happen if the government sets more regulation.

I also took a lot of shit from a poster (LabRat) on TSM about slavery. She screamed and howled at me for days about how I was a/n (insert various derogatory terms here) by saying that corporations enslave people and our country isn't as free as we might think. Well, Lab, here's an example of what the fuck I am talking about. They locked her in a container for 24 hours! Tell me exactly how this is "freedom."

People that support ANY of these men above ought to be ashamed of themselves. Look at one of the names above. He was your party's nominee for cripes' sake! Are you that ball cupping in love with THE CORPORATION that you don't know right from wrong anymore?

Apparently so.

Capitalism: A Conservative Review.

Last in Line and I saw the new Michael Moore film last Saturday night. As with Moore's last film, Sicko, I thought a review was called for from the right side of the aisle and from the same astute scribe. Take it away, Last!

Last in line for Michael Moore's new movie. Keep in mind I’m no writer so random thoughts will be randomly thrown in among the paragraphs and I can’t talk about every subject covered in the movie because that would make this review too long.

One could easily make the observation that MM is irrelevant. GWB won by a wider margin in 2004 than he did in 2000, and that was 2 months after Fahrenheit 9/11 was released. The town hall meetings have had a much stronger impact on the health care debate in this nation than Sicko did and this new movie won't matter much either. The themes in this movie, while important, seemed dated to me…Sicko might have been more appropriate now (while Congress is debating the health-care bill).

One can’t help but notice the common schticks in Moores movies - one-sided stories, ironic stock footage, ominous music, exploitative interviews, awkward confrontations, personal testimonials, absurd/scary facts and figures, use of vintage documentary footage, and pranks that cheapen the message. The movie weaves a familiar Michael Moore story of David versus Goliath (and we all know that nobody ever roots for Goliath). To me, he paints America’s sins with too broad a brush. Pointing a relentless finger at “capitalism”, Moore sounds a little too much like anyone Markadelphia criticizes for getting a little too hot under the collar about “socialism”. In both cases, they’re not making an argument - they’re demonizing a word.

The opening credits roll over security-camera footage of bank robberies in progress. Moore associates the taking of property at gunpoint with free markets, not with taxation.

Next thing we learn is that America is Rome, too distracted by Nascar and Mixed Martial Arts to care that we’re being exploited by wall street. The people who are losing their homes because of the collapse of home prices didn’t do anything to deserve it - if they treated their houses like ATMs or didn’t understand that the A in ARM stands for Adjustable, it’s because greedy Wall Street CEOs and their minions tricked them into doing it. There were several personal testimonials showed here and I’m sorry but I need to know the context of the situation behind why these folks are losing their homes. As usual, Moore only tells part of the story. He doesn’t criticize the home owners who displayed their own greed in taking out unaffordable mortgages and tapping their home-equity every year to buy cars and flat-screen televisions. Sure he showed Countrywide ads about refinancing your home but nobody forces anybody to use their homes as an ATM every year.

Moore clings to a romanticized version of the American past where unions and 90% tax rates on millionaires made America totally awesome.

He interviews a guy from a company called Condo Vultures. This is the same stuff he pulled in Sicko – the Condo Vulture guy in this movie represents capitalism the same way the folks living off of skid row in Sicko represent the American health care system. When Moore goes over to Europe in Sicko, he only profiles white, upper middle class folks. Funny how that works, isn’t it? He also profiles a for-profit juvenile-detention center in Pennsylvania whose operators bribed two judges to give kids longer sentences, thus increasing revenues to the facility. This is a crime and aren’t the men involved are facing long prison sentences? It might come as a shock to some but political corruption predates capitalism and exists in every country on earth. While presenting both these stories, Moore is tackling the wrong subject. This isn't about Capitalism - this is about the lack of ethics and morals by some people who operate within the confines of a capitalistic system. That there are predators that will take advantage and exploit a situation for their own gain is not limited to capitalism. We all know that there are very bad excesses in capitalism - there always has been and there always will be. Capitalism will always be flawed by the prejudices inherent in all humans. Nobody I know who is pro-business thinks people should get away with breaking the law. Speaking for myself, I am pro-free markets. Health care could serve as a great example of what happens when free market forces are taken totally out of the equation. There is no way that nine-out-of-ten people in this country can afford an average hospital stay. This country decided that somebody else has to pay their hospital bills…insurance companies, medicare, medicaid, whoever. In an ideal world, the price in medical services would have to adjust to what people can afford, just as many other things in our economy do (in an ideal world).

Moore spends a lot of time profiling the Republic Window and Door workers in Chicago who refused to leave their factory. Completely left out of the movie was the fact that government (Daley, Blago, and Stroger Jr) had a strong role in Republic going out of business when Cook County raised its sales tax to 10.25%. Many people wrote in to local papers like the Daily Herald and stated that they started saving thousands of dollars on large purchases by doing their shopping outside of Cook County and purchasing windows and doors is a very large purchase. By the time the sit-in began, Cook County had posted a 13% drop in monthly revenue. Moore didn't touch the subject of how raising taxes, any taxes, hurts individuals with purchasing power, businesses being able to stay in their locations and make a profit, and a steady stream (not falling) of revenue for local governments. No company exists to provide jobs. A company exists to produce profit for the owners. Too many people function from a mindset that says the company had a primary responsibility to it's workers. The business owners didn't get together one day and say, "Let's create jobs for workers". They got together and said, "Let's create a business to produce profit for ourselves. In the process, we'll need to hire some people” and that’s why lots of people exchange the term "fair" for "my self-interest".

One particularly chilling sequence explores how woefully underpaid, overworked and therefore unreliable our nation's commercial airline pilots are. If you're currently afraid of flying this portion of the film won't do you any favors.

Moore talks about companies taking out life insurance policies on employees and cashing in on them when employees die. They are called Dead Peasant policies. If you feel they are just wrong, congress and the president can demand legislation banning them.

Moore admits that he once considered entering the priesthood because he admired the church’s commitment to helping the poor. Moore interviews several priests and bishops, some of whom share his view that capitalism is evil and none of whom think capitalism is good for poor people. At no time does anyone mention that some of the most impoverished places in the world do not have capitalist systems in place. It does make one think that maybe we should adopt a more "Christian" ethic of helping those less fortunate but then when you realize that the Christian Ethic isn’t an a la carte menu (allowing us to pick one item and not the others), you’ll then realize what a constitutional travesty that would be.

He spends a lot of time talking about unions and General Motors. I found it odd that he didn’t mention the bailout of the auto industry as he sure talked a lot about the bailout of the financial firms a lot. The union dream and the dream of a strong GM are over, and the reasons Moore cites are only part of the story. In 2008, GM and Toyota actually sold about the same number of vehicles. Toyota turned a $1.7 billion profit while GM lost around $9 billion. That doesn’t happen by accident. Until these automakers and their unions resolve the structural problems that creates this kind of unprofitability, the dream will remain just that – a dream. GM is basically a retirement home/health care facility with a auto plant as a side project. GM has a policy of 30 years there and you can retire and they seemed surprised when lots of people retired at 48 and drew on the pension and free health care for another 30 years.

Bernie Sanders makes a quip that Nurses salaries are too low. Nurses are very well paid at this point in time.

The commercial for the city of Cleveland was absolutely hilarious.

MM claimed that nobody saw the collapse coming. That’s wrong, Peter Schiff saw it –http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I0QN-FYkpw

The film communicates that blood is on both Republican and Democratic hands when it comes to our nation's economic collapse. Chris Dodd and Tim Geithner come off almost as badly as Hank Paulson.

This concept of positive/negative rights colors Moore’s stories of foreclosures in Miami. The families facing eviction aren’t borrowers who failed to live up to their end of a contract. They are shown as Americans whose right to own a home is being violated (there is no such right but that doesn’t stop the folks in the community from harassing the process server who isn’t even an employee of the bank).

One problem with capitalism today could be globalism. We all compete but we don’t all play by the same rules. The transition to a global economy will be painful. Politicians are not going to tell you what you do not want to hear: that the days of getting paid $30/hr turning a bolt on an assembly line are over. Neither political party or labor union can stop that.

At the end of the film, Moore gives us what he thinks is the ultimate illustration of the failure of capitalism: shots of people on the rooftops in the flooded Ninth Ward of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit. The flooding occurred due to levee failure as well as poor maintenance of the flood walls surrounding the city. Spending many mornings of my youth hunting on farms along the Mississippi River in Illinois, I can tell you who is in charge of levees – the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (a government agency) but hey – if you refuse to know the facts, refuse to get alternative viewpoints and buy into everything Moore says then capitalism must be at fault.

In conclusion, I consider the crash of the mortgage backed securities market as perfect operation of the free market and this recession we find ourselves in is not a failure of market economics. It is a reassertion of market economics after a decade in which we paid ourselves more than we were producing, and funded it all with complicated credit instruments. Moore is throwing stones in a glass house he often frequents. Just look at how far Moore, a one-time assembly-line worker turned journalist turned documentary film maker, has come. His journey alone exemplifies the social mobility made possible by the very economic system he rails against. Economic downturns and upswings are as natural as the tides. Human history proves this. The causes can be heaped on “greed” or “capitalism,” but unless Moore thinks that human nature will suddenly transform and we’ll all behave as saints now that the “right people” have now been elected, he’s being just a little bit cynical.

The system could definitely use some improvement but it does not need replacement.

Huh. Now that's a shocker....not.

As we wait patiently for Last in Line's review of the new Michael Moore film, Capitalism: A Love Story (that's right, folks...a conservative reviewing the film...only at Notes do we actually embrace bipartisanship:)), take a look at this glowing bit of news on the state of our plutonomy.

The wealthiest 10 percent of Americans — those making more than $138,000 each year — earned 11.4 times the roughly $12,000 made by those living near or below the poverty line in 2008, according to newly released census figures. That ratio was an increase from 11.2 in 2007 and the previous high of 11.22 in 2003.

Remember, though, any talk of having a slightly higher tax rate means you are A FUCKING SOCIALIST!! I WANT MY PIE!!! GIMME MY PIE!!! (Ok, that last bit was Glenn Beck, not me).

Household income declined across all groups, but at sharper percentage levels for middle-income and poor Americans. Median income fell last year from $52,163 to $50,303, wiping out a decade's worth of gains to hit the lowest level since 1997. Poverty jumped sharply to 13.2 percent, an 11-year high.

Wait....huh? I thought all poor people drove Cadillacs with money stolen by the government from rich people. WTF?

Income at the top 5 percent of households — those making $180,000 or more — was 3.58 times the median income, the highest since 2006.

Well, that's because those at the median won't pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Lazy assholes...

Pharr, Texas, and Flint, Mich., each had more than a third of its residents on food stamps, at 38.5 percent and 35.4 percent, respectively.

Bootstraps!

Between 2007 and 2008, income at the 50th percentile (median) and the 10th percentile fell by 3.6 percent and 3.7 percent, respectively, compared with a 2.1 percent decline at the 90th percentile. Between 1999 and 2008, income at the 50th and 10th percentiles decreased 4.3 percent and 9 percent, respectively, while income at the 90th percentile was statistically unchanged.

And we wonder why some areas of our country are starting to look like the Third World. Ah, well. It's all the gubmint's fault.

If we could just let the market be free, then all of these problems would be solved. People would work harder (or die if they didn't), health care costs would be lower, our country would return to the greatness that our founding fathers believed in, farts would no longer smell, and Jesus Christ could finally expand his derivative operations on Wall Street.

Yep

I want everyone to have health insurance and access to health care services. Health care is a right, not a privilege. The United States is a country built on capitalism and self-reliance, yet compassion is valued in equal measure. My neighbor who was laid off deserves coverage; the single mother without benefits deserves coverage, and the poor, disabled individual with a preexisting condition deserves coverage -- plain and simple.

-Kenneth H. Paulus, President and CEO of Allina clinics and hospitals.

And he runs a damn fine organization as well...one that remembers what it's like to be....oh, I don't know...HUMAN.

Ah, yes...

I think I need to chill out.

If I wait long enough...have patience...inevitably...it all works out:)

A while back, I was taken to the mat over just what exactly McCain campaign staffers thought about Sarah Palin. Carl Cameron of Fox News put out a story post election 2008 that said staffers thought Palin was incapable of handling the vice presidency due to incompetence. The sources he used were unnamed and many jumped on me for even talking about it...saying the story was hearsay and rumor mongering ("many" meaning men that think Sarah Palin is hot and want to fuck her).

But now we have this little tidbit from Steve Schmidt, McCain campaign manager.

I think that she has talents, but you know, my honest view is that she would not be a winning candidate for the Republican Party in 2012, and in fact, were she to be the nominee, we could have a catastrophic election result.

No shit. And why is that, Steve?

What it means to be a Real American

The worst day of Obama's presidency, folks. The ego has landed. The world has rejected Obama. For those of you ... who are upset that I sound gleeful, I am. I don't deny it. I'm happy. Anything that gets in the way of Barack Obama accomplishing his domestic agenda is fine with me.

-Rush Limbaugh, speaking on the rejection of Chicago as host to the 2016 Olympics, 10-2-09

Hitch Your Wagon To This Star

What a great side some of you are on...

Now, if I thought with the same pea brains that you ass hats do, then I would say that you "hate" America. That can't be true now, can it?

A Potpourri of Psychosis

Usually potpourri smells nice. The arrangement that I am about to unfold today smells like the morning after drinking fart...thick in its scent, lingering in it's time (to the point of nausea) hanging around, and gut wrenching due to the pain it causes.

First up, we have Minnesota's own Michelle Bachmann who said this on the floor of the US Congress., in regards to the House version of the health care bill.

Does that mean that someone's 13 year-old daughter could walk into a sex clinic, have a pregnancy test done, be taken away to the local Planned Parenthood abortion clinic, have their abortion, be back and go home on the school bus that night? Mom and dad are never the wiser, they don't know any different.

I so love the tap into your inner rage and pass if off as fact meme.

Next we have Trent Franks, Republican Congressmen from Arizona.

President Obama has no place in any station of government and we need to realize that he is an enemy of humanity.

Quick! Someone find me a rope!

Along those same lines, we had this question from a recent Facebook poll

Should President Obama be killed?

Rounding out our mix of linguistic joy from the day room at Bellevue we have this little ditty from John Perry of Newsmax.

Imagine a bloodless coup to restore and defend the Constitution through an interim administration that would do the serious business of governing and defending the nation. Skilled, military-trained, nation-builders would replace accountability-challenged, radical-left commissars.

He went on to say that President Obama is inviting a military coup and it would be pretty cool. You could file this last one under "Things The Base Like to Wank To At Night."

I must be out of my mind to say such awful things as I do about the right. The left is just as bad, right? I need to be more level-headed and less emotional.

Just like conservatives tell me they are every day.

Side By Side

Here is a recent gem from comments

"If you want to insult a conservative, lie to him. If you want to insult a liberal, tell him the truth."

This got me to thinking about the truth...and facts of course...and then I thought about these two.

Fact One: At this time in George Bush's presidency, our country had suffered the worst attack in history on our home soil (9/11 Al Qaeda attack). We had also suffered an attack of domestic origin (the anthrax attacks). The men responsible for the 9-11 attacks, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahari are still at large 8 years later. The man the FBI says carried out the anthrax attacks, Bruce Ivins, may not have actually done it...either alone or at all.

Fact Two: At this time in Barack Obama's presidency, our country has captured one major terrorist suspect (Najibullah Zazi) and several minor ones. All of these arrests were done, btw, without anyone being tortured or killed which I'm certain will be a giant boner softener for some on the right. There have been no attacks on our home soil.

Now, to be fair to George Bush, Barack Obama has benefited from increased knowledge in nabbing hirabis. But I can't help but wonder, given the insistence by the right that Bush made us safer and Obama has made us less safe, what truth they are looking at?

Which makes me realize that the statement above is complete fucking bullshit.

The Story of Stuff

I was just sent this video and here is my review of it.

Right off the bat she rips the military with the mention of her friends (probably all Che lovers) who think the goverment should be represented by a tank. So, clearly she is traitor. Send her down to Gitmo. Oh, that's right President Adolph Osama is closing it so terrorists can run free in our country and rape our women.

Then she lies about how the government is smaller than corporations and peddles Marxist propaganda by lying and saying that corporations are getting too big. She is an enemy of the free market and wants to throw us all in a boiling pit of sewage. Quick! Hide your children...they are in mortal danger.

Of course, we have to have the cry me a river sob story about the environment and how we are all destoying it. God gave us this planet to do whatever we want. It is our manifest destiny to conquer! Oh, and global warming is lie by the liberal media and scientists who seek to destroy us. It's all a myth and we are all going to be fine.

Her whole spiel about how our consumption of resources is a liberal lie. How dare she! America can do whatever it wants and we shouldn't have to apologize for anything. Apologies are for the weak...meaning liberal traitors.

Essentially this video is one long make out session with communism. If anyone takes anything she says seriously, we will all be camping on a pile of dead skulls. History has shown us that all liberal policies result in our children being slaughtered.

The fact that this video is being show in our schools proves the point that our education system has been taken over by socialist communist fascists who want to indoctrinate our children into their evil ways. Next thing you know, they'll try to turn our chidlren gay and then where will we be?

"We hate the president; we're gonna kill the president, his wife and his kids."

Let me see if I got the protocol straight here.

I put up a post (this one) about how Derrick Thomas, a Brooklyn Park, MN teenager, gets the shit beat out of him at 1am last Wednesday on a bike ride home. His attackers were armed with an ax, a gun, and brass knuckles. They called him a nigger while they were beating the crap out him and told him

"We hate the president; we're gonna kill the president, his wife and his kids."

They also assaulted Derrick's uncle only a few blocks away.

I say that this attack was racially motivated and that it is an indication of the uptick in bias of having a black president. I point out the obvious fanning the flames of this sentiment by people like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, who said recently.

"Barack Obama's America....black kids beating up white kids"

Several posters here then point out that some black kids beat up some white kids...somewhere...and raped a white woman but you'll never hear about it in the liberal media because they're all out to git us white folk.

These same commenters chide me for playing the race card and say that it's all the fault of race mongers like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. How dare I even question that anyone is racist anymore...let alone any conservative or Republican? It's all an obvious liberal lie.

Then we get a bunch of horse shit about how hate crimes are crap and some very pleasant questions that are generally of the theme that perhaps this kid brought it on himself etc. Right around here is where I get accused of being a paranoid, conspiracy theory kook for thinking this is condoned by a large portion of a certain political party.

The original facts are quickly forgotten, a free pass is given to all who need it, and life goes merrily along....as a bunch of fucking Aryan nation asshats continue to draw support.

Sound about right?

Body Count: 2

I'm sure most of you will recall the death of Dr. George Tiller a few months back. He was killed by Scott Roeder, an anti abortion activist. Roeder's wife described him as follows

It was about 1991-92 when he basically couldn't cope with everyday life. He couldn't make ends meet, he couldn't pay the bills and didn't know why he couldn't do that. And someone told him that if he didn't pay his federal taxes, if those taxes were left in his check, he could make ends meet. And then he started investigating that and someone told him that it wasn't ratified properly in the Constitution, that it was illegal. And he went from there and got into the anti-government, got into the militia, got into the Freeman, and along those lines anti-abortion issues came up and he started becoming very religious in the sense that he finally — he was reading the Bible. But then, after we were divorced, his religion took on a whole new right wing of itself.

Roeder has said of the killing.

I know there are many other similar events planned around the country as long as abortion remains legal.

I'm sure many of you will also recall Minnesota's own Michelle Bachmann calling for a boycott of the US Census because of its general evil and ACORN's faux involvement (ACORN!-Eep, blurp, squonk, output=RAGE!).

And now we have this, from AP.

Bill Sparkman, a census worker, age 51, was found hanged in a Kentucky national forest two weeks ago. The word "fed" had been scrawled on his chest, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the case.

The FBI are still investigated the case but I think we can all see where this is going. A recent column by Michael Smerconish makes it pretty clear what we are in store for....

Manchester, Kashner reports, found that in the third year of the Kennedy presidency, "a kind of fever lay over Dallas country. Mad things happened. Huge billboards screamed 'Impeach Earl Warren.' Jewish stores were smeared with crude swastikas. ... Radical right polemics were distributed in public schools; Kennedy's name was booed in classrooms; corporate junior executives were required to attend radical seminars."

And we are only in the ninth month of the Obama administration. In addition, our "fever" is sadly national.

A full-page advertisement had appeared the day of the assassination in the Dallas Morning News accusing Kennedy of making a secret deal with the Communist Party; when it was shown to the president, he was appalled. He turned to Jacqueline, who was visibly upset, and said, 'Oh, you know, we're headed into nut country today.'"

Mr. President, in the last 46 years, our entire nation has grown into nut country.

Protesters marched on Washington carrying signs that read "Bury Obamacare with Kennedy," "Impeach the Muslim Marxist," and "We came unarmed ... this time." A member of Congress shouted down the president and raked in more than $1.5 million in campaign contributions in the days that followed. Cable TV's hottest personality just called the commander-in-chief a "racist" with a "deep-seated hatred for white people."

We come unarmed...this time? And some of you think I am being paranoid? I'm sure some of you will point to the pro life activist who was killed recently or the white kids being beat up...somewhere...as evidence that the people on the "left" are just as dangerous. Sorry, but that dog won't hunt. Compare the acts of violence that I mention to the ones the right wings pundits have trotted out.

They aren't even in the same fucking ballpark.

It's going to get worse, folks, and you know what's really sad? The more the body count rises...and even if that includes President Obama...the more the base will scream that they were justified in murder.

Just wait...it's going to happen.

How is that racist?

Bill nails it again. Starts at 1:16.

Fox News Producer Caught Rallying 9/12 Protest Crowd

Why bother hiding it anymore?

Simply The Same

As I was scanning my morning emails today, I noticed that President Ahmadinejad of Iran made yet another in a series of comments that the Holocaust was a lie. "The pretext (Holocaust) for the creation of the Zionist regime (Israel) is false ... It is a lie based on an unprovable and mythical claim," he told worshippers at Tehran University at the end of an annual anti-Israel "Qods (Jerusalem) Day" rally. We've heard this kind of talk before. It's outrageous, inhuman, offensive, and quite insane.

Essentially, it's the gold plated signature of the conservative base of this country.

Now I don't mean to imply that the right is anti Semitic. They aren't. Remember, suddenly they love Jewish people:) Of course, their reason for this (similar to a barbecue party admiring the fat hog about to be thrown on the spit) is due to their....ehm...belief...that the slaughter of many non-believing Jews will be the precursor to the Second Coming. Yea! I'm certain my friends in Israel can't wait...

What I am saying, though, is that the president of Iran seems to ALSO be a part of the tap into your inner rage and pass it off as fact crowd...Muslim version. He says something that is not true (death panels, Obama isn't a US citizen, immigrants are stealing our luggage and dinnerware) about an historical event (Vietnam was all fucked up because of the media, Iraq really had WMD's) and then spins it so his country is absolutely perfect, beyond reproach, and eternally above criticism.

Whenever he opens his mouth, I see Sarah Palin speaking...shouting about how America should never have to apologize for anything. And anyone who does isn't a real Muslim...ooops...I mean American. I hear her along with Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh talk about the "evil" of Barack Obama's health care plan and can't help but think that if you just substituted the word "Zionists" in there, that those three aforementioned folks would make great hirabis.

I've been taken to the mat before on similar comparisons so before all of you on the right start going ape shit (yet another similarity:)) think about this in terms of degrees. While the conservative base in this country has not openly murdered homosexuals...yet anyway...they do, just like their Muslim counterparts, cite biblical precedent for being anti-gay. It happened here recently in comments (kudos to rld). In addition, I think we can all agree that the conservative base is not going to make their women folk dress up in burkas anytime soon. Yet they do believe that a woman's place is in the home...just like the Bible says...a book that was written by men....just like The Qu'ran.

So, the next time President A opens his yap, take note of the similarity between what he espouses and what the base in this country preaches. Equally as important is HOW they say it which is EXACTLY the same...filled with fear, rage, and paranoia.

Wouldn't it be great if all of them could find some part of the world to yell at each other and leave the rest of us out of it so we can perhaps...EVOLVE?

The Wrecking Crew

The latest scalps that conservative activists have claimed (ACORN and Van Jones) got me to thinking about Thomas Frank's book The Wrecking Crew. If you want to understand why the right hates ACORN so much, read this book. In fact, if you want to understand the right at all and why I say the things I have said in some of the latest threads, you really need to read this book.

From the first review on Amazon.

According to Frank, the conservative worldview is totally committed to "the ideal of laissez faire, meaning minimal government interference in the marketplace, along with hostility to taxation, regulation, organized labor, state ownership, and all the business community's other enemies. "The conservative movement promotes the interests of business exclusively over all else in accordance with the motto, "More business in government, less government in business." So-called "big government," also tagged as the liberal state, is the enemy; in fact, virtually all government is the enemy, other than the national defense.

Juxtapose this with ACORN's central causes: higher minimum wages, more affordable housing, and voter registration and one can easily see why they are rabidly against everything that ACORN stands for and will stop at nothing to destroy them.

Further, from the same comment

Frank also highlights the manner in which conservatives have repeatedly run the country into huge spending deficits in order to "defund the left" while simultaneously politicizing government management positions by favoring ideology over competence. The end result under Republican conservative stewardship is government that demonstrates itself as ineffectual and incompetent, offering but further proof that big government is inherently incapable of working and needs to be outsourced to private, professional concerns who can do the job correctly (and then inevitably failing to do so).

Which is exactly what happened in the Bush Administration. Folks, continue to try to "see all sides" and "be fair" with the current incarnation of the right today and you do so at your own peril as we see in the final line of this review of Frank's book.

Frank demonstrates well that present day politics has truly become, to invert von Clausiwitz's famous maxim, "a continuation of war by other means." Regrettably, one side of the battle (liberals/progressives) continues to play the game as politics, as elections won or lost and citizens swayed or not, while the other side (the conservative base) approaches it as an act of war, a no-holds-barred contest in which the only goal is the complete and utter destruction of the other side.

Folks, this how the right thinks. Jones and ACORN are just the beginning. They can't accept the fact the Barack Obama is president and will do everything in their power to see him brought down. It's only going to be a matter of time before the methods they use will become violent. Their rage is too great and history, I fear, will be repeated.

Oh, no he di'int!!!

Former President Jimmy Carter recently stated that much of the bile towards President Obama is racially motivated. In addition to this comment being filed under "No Shit," this is sure to roil the right even more. First of all, it's Carter so expect all the Carter roasting over an open pit to begin again...always a classic, btw.

And then look for the re-direct on the racism as well. "It's all they have left", "Race Monger", "Eeep-Blurp-Squonk" will all be heard repeatedly over the next few days.

Or you can just check the comments section on the post below for similarly themed denials.

Say It Ain't So, Joe...

I've had a few emails and in person comments about my thoughts on the Joe Wilson deal. I think Andrew Sullivan put it best.

But there was something clarifying about a Southern good ol' boy yelling "Liar" at the president over illegal immigration. That's what the GOP now is: the worst aspects of the old Democratic party combined with a nihilism that is only eclipsed by its catastrophic governance for the past eight years.

No shit. And this is from someone who used to be a Republican.

The problem is that now we have a very large swath of conservatives running around re-framing the bias debate. It's clear to me that Joe Wilson is fucking racist. He can't stand the fact that a black man is president. In fact, I'd wager most people that told their children not to watch President Obama give his education speech last Tuesday are racist as well. But you can't call them on it. Oh no.

Because they start in with the song and dance routine about how that's all liberals know how to do, it's knee jerk reaction, it's unfair..blah blah blah etc etc. From there the left cowers in fear and thinks "Gee, maybe I went too far" and then loses the argument while the original action and it's obvious undertones are long forgotten.

Now, I have no problem admitting that I am biased against Muslim men. It's something I struggle with everyday. The question is...why can't nearly all conservatives admit their problem? I think it ties in to their complete inability to admit when they are at fault. You know...the whole "if you admit you are wrong, you show weakness" meme.

The fact is, folks, that we all have bias. It's part of our socio-cultural context. We distrust the other. And it doesn't matter what side of the aisle we are on. In fact, it's an historical truth that the Democrats have a longer history of racism than the Republicans which I find sad. Not for the Democrats, who have clearly taken steps to outgrow their racism but for the Republicans, a party who once proudly appointed the first black government officials.

A party who cannot see how far they have sunk.

Wow.

I have to admit that, while I liked Al Franken, I did not think he was the strongest Democrat my home state could field. After watching this video, I realize how wrong I was. Way to go, Senator Franken.

Mission Accomplished

"Thinking about my kids in school having to listen to that just really upsets me," suburban Colorado mother Shanneen Barron told CNN Denver affiliate KMGH. "I'm an American. They are Americans, and I don't feel that's OK. I feel very scared to be in this country with our leadership right now."

The UItimate Betrayal

WTF???!!!??

"Government efforts to funnel hundreds of billions of dollars into the U.S. economy appear to be helping the U.S. climb out of the worst recession in decades."

The rest of the article is pretty even handed but this line alone made me, as Bill Maher recently put it, "drop my Bible that I was using to help me masturbate into my gun."

I suppose it's only a matter of time before the right begins to accuse the Wall Street Journal of being a communist newspaper:)

The Sleeping Giant....AWAKE.

I haven't felt the urge to post lately...busy with all sorts of things in my life...school being the primary one. But this story has brought me out of my slumber.

Question for conservatives: WHAT THE FUCK IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?!!!???

Seriously, your paranoia and psychosis is officially limitless. President Obama wants to address the students of this nation on the importance of hard work and staying in school. And you are "absolutely appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama's socialist ideology?" To put it simply, you are collection of asshats.

You complain about our schools not doing a good enough job educating children...the lack of motivation and inspiration...and yet your maniacal fervor won't even allow President Obama to deliver a simple message of on the significance of education. Do you seriously have a governor of a sitting state (Rick Perry, Texas) telling children to stay home from school that day?

I didn't think it was possible for me to be angrier than I was during the W years but I got news for all of you...I am. So, the gloves are off, folks. There won't be anymore polite debating and "trying to see all angles." As of right now, I am finished trying to be fair with you people. And it is YOUR fault. I am sick of trying to pretend otherwise. You aren't part of any sort of solution at all. You exist only to tap into your inner rage and try to fuck things up for this country. You are the problem.

For me to pretend otherwise any longer is insanity.