Careening Down a Hill Toward a Wall

Tags

GOP, Humor, TeaBirchers, teaparty

It should never be said that I can’t sling the crap in both directions.

This man needs to go into the bathroom, close the door, and do his business, and then SHUT THE HELL UP!

Now, I’m the first person on this lovely earth to tell ya, I don’t care about his online fun. I truly don’t. I’m not saying its wrong, immoral, or anything. If he was a truck driver, or short-order cook, hey have at it dude. If he was a neurosurgeon, sure, why not.

But dude, you are a public figure, asking the good folks of NYC to entrust their lives to you. They have a right to expect you are doing more with your time than caressing your weenie.

Seriously.

If you wanna be a public servant, I’m sorry, but you gotta choose–goofy Internet sex, or being mayor. You can’t have both.

And dude? Carlos Danger? That isn’t even erotic. It’s cartoonish.

But then you are the subject of the above aren’t ya?

The only voting the GOP wants to do these days, is the usual repeal Obamacare. I mean how many times? Are you each getting a certificate to frame, hand down to your grandchildren, in the hope that one day in say three trillion years it will be worth $10 on the Antiques Roadshow?

Now the Mike Lee, TeaBircher from UTau as in YOU Taw?, is asking his fellow dipshits to vote to shut down the government in order to block Obamacare. I mean he wants it defunded.

Which is the new GOP way of governing. Take an existing law you don’t like, and just starve it to death. That’s how the minority protects it’s minority constituency against the big bad old MOST OF US!

Which has caused saner (barely) heads in the GOP to say, oh Lord, we can’t do that. Shutting down the government hasn’t worked well in the past. Let’s not lose everything in 2014 guys. (By the by: mightn’t it be a good idea GOP to offer your incoming freshmen a little class in HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, so they know that this kind of crap has been tried before and BACKFIRED?) Just a thought there.

Meanwhile, the President gave a thoughtful and deeply moving reflection on the Trayvon Martin case and it’s impact on the African-American community. It was not pejorative in any way. It was tempered and quiet. I cautioned against violence.

The Right-Wing Madness went berserk.

See, African-Americans are not allowed to speak about race. That’s “playin’ the race card”.

White people are allowed to speak about race as long as they say, “we are post racial” in this country.

They are also allowed, in the spirit of good clean fun to imply that the President is only “half black”, born in Kenya, has the mentality of a welfare recipient, is a plantation negro, and similar bigoted things, not because the speaker is a racist mind you, but is simply “speakin’ the truth”.

Yeah.

Let me get this straight. They all flocked to defend Zimmerman because he was “threatened”, but they all flocked to attack O.J. when he claimed he didn’t kill those two white people. In one case, we should respect the jury verdict, in the other not so much. Which is which? Oh I’m sure you know.

Texas and other places, all run by the great unwashed TeaBirchers, are just helping women they say.

They want women to be safe.

So when they are done, a woman can travel some 6-8 hundred miles to get an abortion if she really HAS to.

Course, if she doesn’t have a car?

Oh, well.

So is the GOP also funding public assistance for pregnant women’s health care?

Are they increasing child care funding?

Are they increasing Medicaid?

Are they increasing food programs for the poor?

NO?

I thought they were trying to help women?

The GOP after 2012, decided they needed to reach out to Latinos.

They reached out really really good.

They said the Senate bill was wrong, because they want to take it “one-step-at-a-time”. That means they want to spend a lot of money putting border patrol agents shoulder-to-shoulder. And  then they want to wait a few years.

Then they want to do a study to see if anybody got across the border without permission. And if there is a rumor that one did, well, they will authorize even more agents, and build the fence even higher, and wait another few years, and do another study, and well.

You see where this is headed.

Then Steve King called them animals, and then said they had calves like cantaloupes from carrying drugs across the border. He knew that from playing cop riding with border agents. He actually felt their calves. And he meant nothing sexual for sure. He was merely doing “hands on” research.

And he can’t figure why anybody would be offended. But Boehner and Cantor just wish he would SHUT THE HELL UP.

Texas couldn’t wait to get going on its voting restrictions.

Neither could North Carolina.

The North Carolina one is aimed at all the right left people. Students, old people, poor people, union people.

It:

• Eliminates early voting
• Eliminates pre-registration
• Precludes extending hours open if needed (if you are in line at the close of the poll you may now be turned away)
• Gives more power to those who want to challenge people in line and give them faulty advice
• Disallows a family to claim their children as deductions on income taxes if their child votes “out-of-state”.

How does any of the above stop the non-existent voter fraud?

Um. . . . give me a minute I’m thinking.

All in all, the GOP seems to be doing an excellent job in positioning themselves to win the favor of the Independents across America. Doncha think?

 

Whose Ox Is Getting Gored Today?

Tags

4th Amendment, Bruce Braley, constitutional rights, freedom, GOP, Health care, Steve King, tea party, teabaggers, Tom Latham, welfare programs

With some folks, freedom and all that fuzzy patriotic stuff can be, shall we say, relative. Much like fundamentalists and their rather astute manner in taking what they like in the Bible quite literally (even when that is not the actual meaning) and ignoring that which they don’t agree with, it seems that our more loudmouthed extremists on the right do the same thing.

You don’t have to watch it. Suffice it to say that our Hannity of Faux News is busy calling Mayor Bloomberg a nanny for his efforts to help his constituents stop ingesting such awful fake food into their bodies.

Now you can agree or not agree with Bloomberg on this. I tend to agree, but I also recognize that it’s very hard to impose such things on people who are addicted to the high sugar, high fat, no nutrient value of a lot of fast food and drink. And there is this other thing–it is an impingement in a sense on one’s right to kill themselves if they so choose.

Note we are not talking about school lunches and the right of school officials to help children develop good eating habits in the first place. That is a laudable goal, and schools provide the opportunity for some children to get the only decent meal they get all day.

But juxtapose Hannity’s silly outrage at Bloomberg’s behavior with that of Nikki Halley’s attempt to limit food stamp usage in her state to only “healthy” food items, meaning that you can’t use them to buy chips and soda and stuff like that I presume. Is she now to be called “nanny” Halley? I’m sure Republicans support her efforts to reduce “obesity” in her state, or is it just possible there is some other motive involved?

I recently had a conversation with a man who hates government programs like food stamps, precisely because he has “stood behind people in line who had food stamps and they weren’t buying good food, but stuff that was unhealthy, and “stuff I wouldn’t be buying if I was allegedly that poor” The real motive being–I want to control charity to others so I can make sure it goes to the “right” people and is used in the “right” way. He had early objected when he offered some leftover pizza to a man who asked for a couple of bucks. When the man reiterated that he’s just like the two bucks, the guy grew incensed, since “he wanted the money, obviously for something other than hunger relief.”

This raises the ugly specter of folks that think they have the right to control those people who they deign to give help to. I you think I’m assuming a bit too much here, I invite you to the case of Florida and Governor Scott’s attempt to impose drug testing on welfare applicants. 

A federal district court ruled Scott’s attempt blatantly unconstitutional, and a Federal appellate court agreed, finding unanimously that the attempt to monitor citizens in this fashion violated their 4th Amendment rights. Note the assumption made here by Scott and Republicans: that welfare recipients necessarily pose a significantly higher threat of drug usage than other citizens. Such is neither warranted by the facts or commons sense, and bespeaks a racist overtone that is apparent to at least me.

Now, I’m told that the conservative seeks to remove government from interfering in the lives of individuals. These examples, serve I think to suggest that that is nothing but balderdash to use a quaint conservative term. It all depends it seems on whose freedoms are at stake–the tiny minority of fellow-traveling extremists, or all those “others” who we don’t really like simply because they ain’t like us.

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What to know the ugly truth of why health care costs are so high? It’s because they charge ten times more for stuff and you get stuck with it. They give you a Tylenol and the charge is more than a whole bottle would be at the drugstore. There is a major exposé in Time this week and you can read it here. Thanks to Squatlo Rant for the link up.

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Best news of the day? Oh by far it’s that Tom Latham, (R-IA) has determined not to run for Tom Harkin’s senate seat. Latham is a true conservative, but he’s not insane. This leaves the pathway wide open for the one and only truly insane candidate on the extremity of the Republican Right little toe—-our favorite idiot Steve King.

And that means that Bruce Braley, an excellent Democratic candidate who is already “in” for running, is sure to win this seat.

I cannot wait to watch this one. King, who is so famous for not debating his opponent, won’t get away with it this time. It should be fun.

Dear Karl of course was threatening to send in his money against King, which hopefully only will make him want it all the more, and that is all she wrote, said the spider to the fly.

Related articles

• Tom Latham won’t run for Senate in Iowa, clearing path for Steve King (dailykos.com)
• Latham out of U.S. Senate race; King weighing decision (thegazette.com)

 

Alien Ships Spotted Over Iowa

Tags

Buddy Roemer, Election 2012, GOP, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, what's up? Iowa caucuses

We didn’t want to start a panic, but in the early hours of this morning, I mean just after midnight, citizens of Iowa were alerted to a grave danger. Dozens of UFOs were spotted over various parts of the state.

Now, we know that corn and hogs are highly important to the national economy, but upon checking, this phenomenon appeared to be local to our state.

As fighter jets scrambled to intercept, a strange thing was noticed. There appeared to be a pattern being established. Soon, it was all too apparent–the ships were joining up and heading in a northeasterly direction. Within minutes they had cleared Iowa air space and were no longer a threat.

We note that similar reports are now coming in from the state of New Hampshire, where, at least  a few of the ships seem to be settling and preparing to land. We send our heart-felt condolences to New Hampshirites. Nothing good can come from this we opine.

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Well, we went and did it didn’t we? I mean how crazy is that? Mittens wins by eight big votes, and old prudish frothy mix is second, though everyone considers that he really won. Meanwhile the crotchety old man who just wants to sit on his porch and shoot bb’s at kids came in third. Newt came in a distant fourth, and Perry is heading home to Texas to “reassess”. Michele? Oh gosh the poor Mrs. Thatcher in drag, her lipstick smeared, and her mascara running in puddles around her cheeks, is preparing to throw in her high heels and declare it a day.

And we the fair citizens of I O WAY, are breathing free once more. Gone are all the candidates with their lying rhetoric and their sycophantic nodders. Gone are the pundits who spent hours saying the same basic thought 432 times, in 237 different ways. Gone are the trucks of cable and equipment, the cameras and microphones. Alas, not gone is Steve King, who gutless wonder that he is, remains, still claiming relevance in the state somehow. King you may have noticed didn’t have the guts of his convictions enough to even endorse his long-time Tea-Pal Michele, nor his other family-value bud, Ricky S. King is after all, out for King, and one must not step on the toes of a potential employer, i.e. candidate who might hand me a bigger job.

A pox on all their houses.

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Did you know that if there is a sexual misbehavior scandal, odds are that 2 out of 3 times, it will involve a Republican? I read that yesterday. Family values just leave a person with so much pent-up energy I guess.

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Buddy Roemer was running in the caucuses too. He is a rather likeable kinda guy. He was tweeting  with a good sense of humor about his relative lack of “votes”. He was tweeted back something like this: “Hey Buddy, we are having a drinking party, and taking a shot with every vote you get. We are all still sober.” He got 31 votes. On the other hand, Jon Huntsman got 745, which proves that there are at least than many sane Republicans in Iowa. We’re most proud of that little factoid. Can you say as much?

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Meanwhile, Newty is pulling off the gloves. No more Mr. Nice Guy for him. Was there ever a Mr. Nice Guy Newt? He’s hoping to partner up with Ricky S. and stand around saying nasty things about Mittens. Newty is fun, and he doesn’t even try to be. Old tired boring and all-around mean old fart, John S. McCain is all set to endorse Mittens. *Yawn* Yeah, I know, who cares?

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These are the gems I live for. If you hadn’t heard, Mitt likes to quote from “America the Beautiful.” He sees it as somehow reflecting his vision of America. Trouble is the writer of that lovely hymn was an ardent feminist and lesbian who was railing against the Gilded Age. And she changed the third verse to what you know from the original:

America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till selfish gain no longer stain
The banner of the free!

Bet Mittens has no clue that he’s parodying himself.

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And because I really do love ya all bunches, please be advised that the wonderful humor of Margaret and Helen has returned with a post today. Don’t miss Helen’s take on the political landscape.

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See, this Santorum thing is not a bad thing. I know some think it is, but heck, we’ve just been ignoring him since he was utterly irrelevant. But he’s full of fun surprises when you check around a bit. This is like my first best quote he has uttered:

 “One of the things I will talk about, that no president has talked about before, is I think the dangers of contraception in this country,” the former Pennsylvania senator explained. “It’s not okay. It’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.”

“Do things” I like that. Ricky can’t bring himself to name these things, which he must really have to steel himself to “do.” This dude is seriously repressed. If you would like a list of some of his most fun quotes, go here.

Dear Lord, I do thank you for Republicans. They never stop giving material. It’s almost too much God, almost.

 

Related articles

• Romney squeaks out victory in Iowa (thegreatone22.wordpress.com)
• The GOP Dodges a Bullet (treeofmamre.wordpress.com)

Speaking of the Debt Ceiling Crisis. . .

Tags

budget, debt ceiling, economy, Eric Cantor, GOP, hall of shame, Louis Gohmert, Michele Bachmann, political hacks, Steve King, teabaggers

Well, it’s been an interesting time of it since Mitch “the Turtle” McConnell offered up his “we wash our hands of this mess” alternative to a deal on the debt ceiling.

The hard right is wailing, and the usual bunch of nuts are pushing each other off the microphone, eager to spew their own idiocy before an increasingly irritated public.

Boehner lost his swagger as Speaker, and now stands mute and castrated behind boy wonder and all-around poop, Eric Cantor. Eric has seen that his only real path to the Speakership is over the dead body of Boehner and as champion of the TeaPeople, sliced and diced to anyone who would listen at the last White House meeting.

Finally President Obama reminded the little shit just who was President.

Now, people who only play the part of a journalist (moi) have been increasingly angry with the President over his handling of this budget deal. I’ve been fearful that he was giving away too much, especially as it relates to Medicare and Social Security. These are things I have paid my dues into and as I approach 62, they are becoming increasingly dear to my heart. Yet once again, as the Contrarian says, Obama proves to be playing chess against opponents who are playing checkers.

One blogger was wont to say that Obama and his team are either political geniuses, or the luckiest sons-a-gun on earth. They managed to say the right words, the GOP took the bait, and now they are firmly in a corner from which they cannot extricate themselves.

You gotta conclude that the President and the Democrats are in full control now when you see who is screeching from the right. Eric Cantor of course is now front and center. Trouble is, everyone knows he and Boehner don’t exactly get along, and everyone knows Eric wants Boehner’s job. So his credibility is like in negative numbers when it comes to trusting his motives in all this.

Next we find Sarah “do you still love me?” Palin. The Palinator, whose understanding of economics should fill up the label of a Valium vial, weighed in, explaining to Sean “the finger” Hannity, that Obama is holding the “full faith and credit” of the US of A hostage. Course she has not a clue of what she just said in that, having no concept of what the phrase full faith and credit means.

In words that send a thrill up the nether regions of her minions, the TeaPeople, she advised GOP leadership to “not retreat, but reload.” Trying desperately to recapture her fading relevance, Wasilla Woman mewed that she didn’t even under stand Mitch’s latest capitulatory offer. (No surprise there.) In addition, she opined that she didn’t “necessarily believe” that a default on August 2 would be catastrophic for the country. What she does “necessarily believe” was, of course, not forthcoming.

Meanwhile, the Larry, Moe and Curlycue show was going on elsewhere. If you can imagine a more hilarious threesome than Louis (Gomer without the brains) Gohmert, Steven (I have 732 anti-Obamacare bills pending) King, and Michele (pray the gay away) Bachmann, well I’m not sure who they would be.

These buffoons introduced a bill that would require (if anybody bothers to read their crayon on construction paper bill) that armed-service personnel be paid first if we go into default. All for show of course. Again, Michele also exited reality and said the President was “holding the full faith and credit of the US hostage”.

 She continues to claim that the President is lying about any catastrophe. Showing her math skills, she explains that although our obligations per month total over 300 billion, and our revenue is only about 125 billion, we “can pay all our bills from revenue.”

Steve King (of clowns) went on Chris Matthews and ‘splained that he gets his knowledge that there is no default problem from “the American people” and then puffed up and touted his own “independent judgment.” Chris pressed on, and King graciously added, his expertise on all matters economic came from “a long experience of dealing politically, and in business, and raising a family, and being an American citizen…”

Being suitably impressed with that Chris asked if King Dong read the Wall Street Journal or the NYTimes? King said, he did occasionally, but  “I don’t trust the words of any source.”

Steve, who vies next month against an orangutan named Nelly, for the world stupidity championship, was asked finally whether he could name one international expert who agreed with him. Steve, swelled up with superiority, and crowed, “this is not an international problem, it’s an American one!”

Louis (Larry Stooge) mostly stood in the background trying to decide when all this money talk was done what he would have for lunch. (American cheese on my burger or Swiss? Ahh, American, it looks much more patriotic).

Mr. Gohmert (Gomer Pyle without the voice), cautioned Mr. Boehner not to listen to that Obamer fella, and then mumbled, “just copy what lovely Michele said, as what I say too.”

That, ladies and gents, is an example of the big guns of intellectual stature batting for the GOP. I mean, they must be so proud.

Meanwhile average Republicans were asked to comment. To a person the same response: “Louis? Sarah? Michele? Steve? I never knew them.  And the cock crowed a third time.

Related articles

• Will Marshall: Will Cantor Blow Up the Economy? (huffingtonpost.com)
• Bachmann, King, Gohmert Have Solution To Debt Ceiling (lezgetreal.com)
• Obama-GOP debt talks get tense at White House (msnbc.msn.com)
• Eric Cantor Emerges as GOP Leader in Debt Ceiling Debate (socyberty.com)
• Passing the Ball to Eric Cantor (politicalwire.com)
• Reaction to McConnell’s debt-ceiling proposal highlights deep fissure in GOP (dailykos.com)
• Obama Takes Cantor to the Woodshed (economistsview.typepad.com)
• ‘Enough is enough,’ Obama says, calling for deal (ctv.ca)
• Obama vs. Cantor: Tempers Flare As Debt Ceiling Negotiations Take a Dramatic Turn (swampland.time.com)
• Why Mitch McConnell Will Win the Day (robertreich.org)

Crystal Ball Gazing

Tags

Al-Jazeera, Books, Dalai Lama, Entertainment, freedom of press, Individual Rights, Libya, memory, news media, no-fly zone, pensions, religion, spirituality, Steven King, Tibet, unions, Wisconsin

Well, a no-fly zone has been instituted over Libya. It may be too little, too late. I guess there is no way to know at this point.

I don’t know if it was the right thing to do or not, but I do know that doing nothing was unacceptable. Somehow we have to make it clear to petty dictators that murdering your massive opposition is not acceptable, no matter how many paid henchmen you can pay.

There is nothing clear about whether it will succeed or not–the no-fly zone I mean. Andrew Sullivan directs us to Marc Lynch and his views which I think are well worth reading. All depends, in his view, as to whether or not we can succeed and do so quickly. The stakes are high. Bahrain and Yemen are both now engaged in severe crackdowns against rebels in their nations. A quick success in Libya could give them pause. Otherwise, the cries for freedom may be muffled once again.

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Some good news in Wisconsin. A judge there has placed a temporary restraining order against the Govenator’s new union busting bill. A full hearing will be held, to determine the legality of the sleazy trick the GOP attempted by violating the “open records” law. There is some reason apparently to think that the judge might be inclined to the union side of the equation.

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Lest we forget, the GOP of course is claiming that union benefit packages, including pensions are grossly unfair and bloated. All the while they claim this, not a one of them refuses their own pension plans gifted to them by taxpayers. Steven King (R-IA), oinker from Iowa, claims his is “slim pickins”, while the FACTS seem to suggest just the opposite. Like health care, which they are also again, and which they also receive from the taxpayers. Me thinks King, et.al. speak with forked tongues.

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Did you know that in the three areas of the US that carry the english version of Al-Jazeera, it gets quite high ratings? Did you know that every time cable networks start to talk about putting them on the regular cable news lineup, the conservatives go bat shit crazy? Political Irony suggests, I guess we don’t have freedom of speech here unless it agrees with what corporate-owned media likes.

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As many of you know, the Dalai Lama has been the political and spiritual leader of the Tibetan people for many years. He has been in exile since 1959. Recently he signaled his intent to step down as political leader, feeling that the Tibetan people should be able to rule themselves. They don’t like the idea, and apparently do not intend to amend their constitution to make that possible. I guess it means that the Dalai Lama is doing something right. It’s hard to think of any leader that the people wish to remain in office in this world today. Maybe we should take a look.

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A book you might want to take a look at, called the Sufi’s Garden.

The Sufi’s Garland
by Manav Sachdeva Maasoom
Published by: ROMAN Books
Publication date: 25th March 2011
Price: $24.95 (Hardcover)
104 pp, 6-1/8 x 9-1/4″
ISBN: 978-93-80040-02-8

A small excerpt:

I went outside to see
if God’s voice
was disturbing anybody

I think I’m going to inquire about getting it for review. It looks simply divine. [h/t 3quarksdaily]

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I bet you forgot, that you used to memorize things. If you are old as me anyway, which is older than most trees, but not quite as old as the Jurassic. See, we used to memorize things like phone numbers and addresses. And we don’t have to do that any more, so we are beginning to lose our abilities to remember stuff. I can tell you that is true because I dare not send the Contrarian to the store to pick up five things without writing them down. Actually, make that three things.

Anyway, there is a new book out that helps you remember what you never knew, or something like that. How to remember stuff. Moonwalking with Einstein: the Art and Science of Remembering Everything. Read a review of it here.

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Okay, you got enough information to make you  the hit of the party tonight. Have at it.

Related Articles

• The Dalai Lama pushes reform (search.japantimes.co.jp)

Easier Said Than Done

Tags

Bill O'Reilly, Extreme right-wing, Fox News, GOP, Obama, Politics, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Tucson shooting

By all accounts, the President hit one out of the ball park. I certainly thought so.  It was eloquent, touching, inspiring, uplifting. It was pure Obama. Even the Right had to admit that he had struck the right note.

Flipping over to Fox, you got plenty of “good jobs” from the panel, albeit with the Foxonian twist: The President had taken their advice, stayed away from finger-pointing and had subtly told the Left to quiet down. Actually of course, he gingerly suggested that both sides temper their remarks.

“If this tragedy prompts reflection and debate, as it should, let’s make sure it’s worthy of those we have lost,” he said. “Let’s make sure it’s not on the usual plane of politics and point scoring and pettiness that drifts away with the next news cycle.”

This is of course lost on the Right who find themselves incapable of ever admitting that they are anything but perfectly right. In fact, this propensity is what made Palin’s remarks what one expects of her ilk, and by definition, not Presidential.

I think the President is most right of course, and many on the Left, and a very few on the Right (those who stand for principle in the face of the Tea Party onslaught), have been saying so and begging for some civility for some time.

Why isn’t it happening? Why can we not get beyond this name-calling?

It may come as no surprise that I see the problem as largely on the Right. And the problem is simply because the Right, as I have said, NEVER ever admits they have overstepped. Ever. Sarah and all her kind are always the victims of intentional smears, they are never wrong.

Many on the Left have said that Palin was not personally responsible for the events in Tucson, either directly or ever indirectly by herself. We have said that she participated in the creation of a culture of vitriol that encourages people to act out their angers and their fears. Both of these, anger and fear are the emotion of choice of Palin, Bachmann, King, Cantor, Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, and Fox in general.

I read a few days ago of a journalist from another country who had the temerity to criticize Bill O’Reilly some years ago. He was astounded, that within twenty-four hours, his education, his employment, and his ethnicity and motives were called into question by Fox. His e-mail was flooded with hate mail. At no time, he said, did O’Reilly or Fox address the fundamental criticisms he leveled.

All these extremists deal in ad hominem attack. They never respond in substance. If they did, then we could dialog.

This is what frustrates reasonable voices on the Left. If Palin, had simply acknowledged that indeed she has in the past used imagery and words that could be misconstrued and for that she was sorry, many who oppose her would have listened and approved. But she cannot do that, for the internalization of criticism is too deep, she takes it too personally. She can’t let it go. She knows of only one way and that is retaliation.

She tells herself, apparently, that no matter how reasonable she might be, the criticism would continue. That is probably true to a degree. The Left has its haters too, and nothing Palin could say or do would be good enough. But that is not true of the mainstream progressive and independent.

While patient education might change the above, the other element in why the Extremist Right cannot change their tenor, is more insidious. It’s not can’t but won’t. And they won’t because it continues to help them achieve their goals. Winning big in the 2010 mid-term elections is proof to them that hate and fear work.

I read something like this yesterday:

You can fool a few of the people all of the time, and this is Fox’s targeted audience.

The truth is, this is actually true. Fox panders to an audience that has been warned off the MSM, and all pundits and politicos that are not following the Fox agenda. It’s audience therefore never becomes informed that so much of what Fox runs is provably wrong. They don’t see the clips of their talking heads saying opposite things from days and weeks and months earlier. They are safely closeted from MSNBC, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report, as well as PBS and a plethora of middle-to-light Left commentary and journalism.

Therefore, the Fox lie works. This of course is not lost on the Extremists in the GOP. They too have learned from Fox that lying works to their base. They have come to depend on a largely uneducated, largely ignorant electorate who reads and watches only what they have given them permission to. Members of the Tea Party and GOP Extremists in general have learned the value of repeating the mantra of the day. What is the mantra for Health Care repeal?—JOB KILLING. The phrase is used by EVERYONE on the Right. No matter that it isn’t true, no matter that the CBO has projected that repeal would add billions to the deficit. They simply reply that that is an “opinion.” Is it called the Health Care Act? No it’s called Obamacare, by EVERYONE on the Right.

So in the end, I find it hard to see how the President’s call for civility can be accomplished. When Rush Limbaugh pounds the table and announces that the Democratic Party is “all for the Tucson killer” and Tom Pawlenty barely suggests that Palin’s crosshairs might be “not what he would do” before having to walk it back in the face of condemnation by Fox, then how can we take them seriously? When they are unwilling to admit any culpability in our climate of hate, it is hard to see how we talk with quiet respect to one another. When they are unwilling to condemn the hate mongers among them, how can we honor each other’s real beliefs?

If you know a way, by all means suggest it. I’m stymied.

Related Articles

• O’Reilly’s Fiery Talking Points Memo Fearlessly Slams Krugman, MSNBC (mediaite.com)
• Fox talkers demand Sheriff Dupnik produce evidence. Since when has evidence ever mattered to Fox talkers? (crooksandliars.com)
• The bottom line in America is you are free to hate (cbc.ca)

Held Hostage By the NFL

Tags

agnosticism, Bill O'Reilly, Christians, Contitution, faith, farm workers, gravity, Health care, Humor, immigrants, John Boehner, Latinos, Literature, Mark Twain, Muslims, NFL, physics, Politics, religious doubt, Sports, Steve King, teabaggers, terrorism

Shhh. Be very quiet. This is a house of where now we whisper. “It’s the Playoffs!” Shhhh. Turn around three times, and blink twice. Rub the rabbit’s foot and wiggle your toes. Avoid the black cat.

Negativity be banned. The Packers are poised. They are coming to a TV near you soon. They will prevail. They will overcome.

Okay. Get my drift. My house is in a tizzy all because a bunch of overpaid prima donnas are about to take to the fields of America and cheat, beat each other to a win, all entitling them to advance to the next round.

Everything under heaven and on earth stopped this morning as the Contrarian frantically searched the TV guide looking for THE teams’ game day and time. “I can’t find the early game!” he moaned, nearly swooning with fear.

“Try the Internet,” I mumbled, making the bed.

“Oh God, that will take forever!” he intoned.

“Try NFL Playoffs,” I suggested helpfully.

“I know what to put in!” he huffed.

Ten minutes later, he was pouting, “It’s taking so long!”

“Welcome to my world,” I chuckled.

Suffice it to say that the early game was the late game, and the late game was an even later game, and I get to watch football tonight and then, joy of all joys, do it all over again tomorrow. Whew. I’m sharpening my knitting needles for all the fun!

Now I admit, I can watch football with the best of them, but gee wiz, this is a bit obsessive dontcha think?

Oh, and if there is any question in your mind, the Packers are gonna win the whole thing. You can bet on that literally. Now personally, I have my reservations, but God, I sure ain’t gonna utter them around this house. I’m lucky I got the old goat   Contrarian to go out and bring in some wood to keep my tootsies warm today!

***

Bringing another voice to the Huckleberry Finn controversy, I give you one Roger Ebert. His take is I think worth your while. The more I read of Mr. Ebert, the more I respect this man.

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Political Irony has your late night political humor here.

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Don’t know if you heard or not, but Steve King (R-IA) put foot in mouth again. Chastising a Democrat on the floor of the House, for criticizing Speaker Boehner, King regaled that Boehner was full of mendacity, not knowing what the word meant. Boehner indeed is a liar when he claims that the Affordable Heath Care Act is a job killer and costs too much.

Actually it’s working pretty darn good. And that is according to no less than Forbes Magazine. There has been a major uptick in small business buying health insurance for their employees, many for the first time ever, made affordable by the tax credits within the Act.

No doubt Boehner will call that an “opinion” just as he did the CBO estimates that repeal of the act would cause deficits in the area of 230 billion within ten years.

***

Since it doesn’t fuel the narrative offered by Faux News and the GOP, you might have missed this story. Egypt, rift with Al Qaeda like attacks on Coptic Christians, and not confident that their government could protect the latter, saw fit to unite to protect Christians worshiping on Christmas. Yes,  that’s right, Muslims  protecting Christians.

It is essential that we report, and spread the word, that Americans who have an agenda that includes vilifying Muslims must be met with facts. Muslims are not to be another “excuse” to blame some “other” for our own failings.

***

I’ve tried in the past to interact with atheists, but the NeoAtheists are a different breed, younger, and arrogant, and unwilling to discuss issues on any other plane but from a fundamentalist outlook. I know not where to find agnostics, who by their very nature aren’t usually of such a serious bent as to blog on their questions.

James McGrath, does an admirable job of addressing such concerns, with lots of links to atheists, believers and those in-between. I found the discussion heartening and informative.

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Border Explorer has a very important post on migrant workers in this country. It’s a must read. We owe a great debt to our Latino brothers and sisters for all the work they do. Please read.

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Inexplicably, Billo the Clown (Bill O’Reilly) seems to believe that the fact that the sun rises and sets and that the tides go in and out, is evidence that God exists. Inexplicable because although I believe that O’Reilly is a horses butt and rather uniformed by choice, I didn’t think he was flat-out stupid. Both Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have had occasion to query how Billo seems to not understand the concept of GRAVITY?  I mean junior high kids could explain that one to Billo. (H/T to James McGrath.

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We mentioned the other day that the GOPers in reading the Constitution in the opening session of the House, omitted the 3/5ths clause, because it had been “amended” out. In reality it doesn’t fit with their narrative that the Founding Fathers were perfect and only instituted a limited government. Forgetting of course that the Articles of Confederation were a “limited federal government” and scrapped as unworkable. Of course the 3/5ths clause suggested that our FF were flawed humans as we all are. An excellent article to that effect is by Paul Harvey, teacher of history at University of Colorado. (H/T to James McGrath)

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What’s on the stove: hotdogs, hash browns and coleslaw.