Putting “Bob” in a Search Engine

Tags

critical reading, critical thinking, Louis Gohmert, Media, PPH, right wing extremists, sex education, Texas

You know, everybody says they “don’t believe everything” they hear. Everybody likes to think of themselves as discerning individuals who eyes can’t be covered with wool. But the truth is, most people aren’t educated, or have not taken the time to really work at what can only be termed a skill set.

Being a critical reader doesn’t come naturally. A Facebook friend of mine is busy trying to educate a few people about how to tell the questionable from the reliable. He makes a good point. You might want to ignore a source that gives you salacious or wild headlines without a corresponding story. In other words, if the headlines don’t turn out to match the actual verifiable facts in the story, well, you might want to look elsewhere.

A case in point was a recent Rachel Maddow show wherein Ms. Maddow referred to the town hall meeting that John McCain had. A woman referred to her son as having been the victim of gun violence. She wanted to know about what laws Congress might pass. McCain first expressed his condolences for the loss of the woman’s son, and then remarked that “Congress was not going to ban assault weapons.”

Now Rachel indicated that the tape of this had been edited by a local news operation, and that “it might unfairly portray Senator McCain as lacking in compassion. (the tape omitted the sentence regarding McCain’s sympathies). The tape was offered for the news that McCain was saying that the GOP was not going for any ban on assault weapons and this was before there had even been any hearings on Feinstein’s bill.

Yet, the headline from a right-wing shrill machine was something like “Rachel Maddow gleefully admits she edited tape to make GOP look bad.”

I assume you get the point.

The Daily Caller has been pushing the Melendez story. You have obviously heard about it. Melendez is accused of cavorting with paid prostitutes at a friend’s home in the Dominican Republic. The story was apparently “leaked” by GOP operatives and offered to ABC news. They declined.

The right-wingers would say, “see, the MSM is in the pocket of the Democrats. They don’t report on misconduct of one of their own.” Is that what happened? No. Not at all.

The fact is that ABC interviewed one of the “prostitutes”. When asked how she knew that the man she had only known as “Bob” was a US senator, she replied that “I put his name in a search engine and Melendez’ picture came up.”

Why, I invite you to try that and see what you get.

ABC news declined the offer as “unreliable”, which of course The Daily Caller jumped all over it. Which one do you want to use as a source of information? (And I’m not pushing ABC news since I don’t find them all that good either.)

Which brings me full circle, since yesterday I unfairly maligned a nurse quite possibly, for failing to render CPR assistance to an elderly assisted-living woman. Apparently the woman had signed a DNR and I can presume that the nurse was aware of it. Or I would expect that was possible. In any case, I admittedly relied on only what I heard on news broadcasts from MSM and failed to delve any deeper into better sources. Mea Culpa. Live and learn. Hoisted on my own petard. (please insert any another euphemism that seems appropriate)

†

I’m inclined at this point to urge the government to just put a big ole fence around the state of Texas. Now granted, they are a big state, and they have a big population, but for Jimminy Cricket’s sake, they can’t have THAT many idiots can they?

Louis the Loon Gohmert is wasting your tax dollars once again with his amendment rider to a budget bill that would prevent any “federal funds” being used to transport the President to any golf outing until “White House tours are resumed”. Louis woke up from a drug-induced dream and thought he was in Lilliputian land again. The White House suspended tours to save money ala the sequester. Louis takes up space on the planet. I vote to suspend him from a hot air balloon, attached to the capital dome.

Another dim bulb in the state Senate wants to suspend operations like Planned Parenthood from submitted sex education materials to schools that teach sex education. Although all such materials are already subject to public availability and parental veto, Ken Paxton thinks (I know, a crazy word to apply to many in Texas), that present law doesn’t go far enough.

Places like PPH should not be allowed to offer health care information because of course they have a “conflict” of interests. Being that they provide abortions, they most surely would be promoting sex by unmarried teens as a way to, you know, keep business up.  While no example of any information that does that was offered as proof, insiders believe that if you put the brochures in water with a teaspoon of sugar, the words “HAVE SEX NOW!” will appear across the top of each page.

Okay, I added that last part.

And people talk about the misuse of taxes.

Related articles

• Daily Caller sticks with Menendez claims; ABC News discredits them (dailykos.com)
• MSNBC Uses Selectively Edited Video to Smear McCain (freebeacon.com)

Last Person Found Who Can Still be Shocked

Tags

abortion rights, Alan Keyes, DOMA, el-Qaddafi, gay rights, Georgia, GOP, Iowa, Middle East, Obama, Paul Broun, right wing extremists, unions, Wisconsin

I do believe that 2011 will go down as the year when we, the human life contingent lost its ability to be shocked by anything happening in the world.

I mean, who would have thunk that the Middle East would have erupted into all this?

Who would have believed that the insipid Sarah Palin would still be uttering inanities?

Who would believe that Alan Keyes would write in WND that the end of DOMA is akin to reintroducing slavery into America? Don’t worry. You have to be as insane as Keyes is in order to even follow his argument.

Who would believe that some Georgia legislator (read escapee from a state hospital) would propose a bill that required any woman who suffered a miscarriage, prove by a preponderance of the evidence that she had not voluntarily aborted, or face prosecution?

You’re not shocked are you? No, we’ve realized that the extremists among us are capable of virtually anything, no matter how utterly Machiavellian or down right down home stupid it might be.

As we expected, the forces of right-wing intolerance are jumping up and down, waving their arms, drooling with spittle, slathering away in unison. They DEMAND that the GOP take up the flag of homophobic hatred known as DOMA and defend her ugly precepts. Strangely, the rank and file “GOP establishment” has remained fairly silent. They know what a sticky wicket they’ve been thrust in.

Ahab has more links to reactions as well.

Meanwhile rational human beings in Hawaii and Maryland move closer to respecting the rights of our LGBTQ friends.

Fun to watch doncha think?

***

That abortion billboard we reported on earlier this week in Soho? It’s been taken down. Thanks to Al Sharpton. The mother of the girl pictured was incensed as well that her child’s stock photo was used in this way.

***

One of the fascinating things that the uber right-wing does, is to put off on the left what it does itself. Namely, highly dangerous and inflammatory rhetoric. Perhaps the peaches in Georgia are rotten, but another infected individual there inquired of his Georgia lawmaker in an open forum:

“When will someone shoot Obama?”

The lawmaker, Paul Broun, didn’t do what we would expect. He was not horrified. He did not sputter and dress down such a sick suggestion. No. Rather, he commiserated with the “frustration” of the speaker. Need I say, that Broun is a Republican?  To be fair, this is not new to Broun, who called the President’s state of the union speech, filled with venom?, compared him to Hitler, said that  people would die from clean energy spending, and that the elderly would die from death panels. In other words, Broun is simply an ignorant hate monger.

Andrew Sullivan calls for his resignation. Witnesses claim that Broun laughed at the call for assassination of the President. By all accounts Broun is a bigoted sicko who has no place as a representative of any state.

***

People are gathering in all 50 states to show their support for Wisconsin’s fight against union busters. If you want to find out where your rally is being held, follow the link.

***

Don’t know as you heard how the Wisconsin Assembly managed to get the vote through on busting the union. During the midst of the filibuster, with no explanation, the Rethuglian speaker pro tempore simply cut off debate, called for the vote, the GOPer’s (all in on the ruse) hurriedly voted, and a few seconds later, the window to vote was closed. They declared victory and marched from the chamber. This literally occurred in a few seconds. Cheaters never win in the end. Sad and pathetic. Of course, in years past, the duplicitous governor has decried these late night sessions and called for their end. But of course when you are duplicitous, anything goes. Senate Democrats remain out of the state, continuing to block further movement of the bill.

***

Remember that bill in South Dakota, that would make killing an abortion doctor justifiable homicide? It was tabled due to “public outcry”. Well apparently the deaf Rethuglians in Iowa didn’t hear. They have introduced their own law, co-signed by 29 other GOPer sickos. As we have said, this is all just a waste of time, since the Senate is in control of Democrats. And Kraig Paulsen continues to waste taxpayer money on bills that are doomed to failure.

***

And the killing goes on in Libya. How do you deal with a madman? Qaddafi is insane, of that almost everyone agrees. Still I can’t come to wish him dead. Only out of power. I am enraged at his use of mercenaries willing to kill for pay. I know of no solution to end this. I pray for the people of Libya and hope that their misery soon ends. Sigh……

*** 

Related Articles

• GOP Rep. Paul Broun Doesn’t Bat An Eye At Obama Assassination Question (oliverwillis.com)
• Republican Congressman Declines To Condemn Person Who Asks “Who’s Going to Shoot The President?” (outsidethebeltway.com)

Unmasking the Face of Hate

Tags

American History, editorial, hate in America, racism, right wing extremists

Hate has shaped America from its inception. Strong statement, but I believe essentially true.

Hate caused the new colony in Massachusetts to deny property rights to Catholics, Jews, Quakers, and anyone else who weren’t the “right” faith denomination. They were also prevented from seeking office, and many were thrown out of the state and not a few hung.This was repeated in most of the other new colonies as well.

Indifference which turned to hate,  led America to push out and then virtually exterminate indigenous people in the growing country.

That same sentiment led to the 3/5 clause in the US Constitution and ultimately to a thriving slave-owning business throughout both the North and South. Many of our first presidents and other founding fathers owned other people.

As each wave of immigrants came into the country from, they were mistreated and segregated for a generation or more.

Now we have turned out animus upon those of Latino and Arab descent. Oh, I know, we’ve looked down upon them for decades at least, as we have Asians. Anything not-white was not quite right, not as good. But for the most part, except for the Japanese internment, we have been happy to eat their cooking, and walk on the lawns they mowed, and buy from their convenience stores without anything overt.

That changed with 9/11. At least insofar as Arabs were concerned. And as the economy began to sink, Latinos, in the guise of “illegals” became a convenient target.

It seems that everywhere we look we see utterly crazy people doing utterly crazy things. Legislatures being inundated with idiotic laws meant to limit the rights of parts of our population. Of course the answer is not that there are more crazies today than before, but that the Internet has allowed crazies to connect and validate each other, and to speak in a forum that reaches to the ends of the earth.

These once secluded loonies now bay at the moon all their hatred of “other.” And the vast majority of us who are rational beings, well, we worry.

Having spent a couple of weeks thumbing through the comments at The Blaze, I’ve learned a few things. More than a few actually. It’s important to understand the code, for it tells you much of what is actually going on.

I’m reading a book featuring Thomas Merton’s letters. Merton was a Trappist monk and kept up a huge correspondence with something in excess of 2,000 people over his life. In a letter to James Baldwin, the writer, he noted:

“. . .there is not one of us, individually,racially, socially, who is fully complete in the sense of having in himself all the excellence of all humanity. . . .I am therefore not completely human until I have found myself in my African and Asian and Indonesian brother because he has the part of humanity which I lack.”

Truer words were never more eloquently spoken. And yet, there are people who are aghast at such sentiments.

Over at The Blaze, one of the things I’ve learned is that white people, themselves specifically, are NOT racist. They adore and revere Martin Luther King, Jr. However, you might not be familiar with Dr. King, for he was for Equality of Opportunity. He was NOT for social justice. He was NOT for redistribution of wealth. He was NOT for actions that attempted to undo past wrongs, and level the playing field. No, Dr. King would be appalled at such things. He wanted only an equal chance.

I learned that Jesse Jackson, Rev. Al Sharpton, and ANY black (they never use the term African-American) person who espouses institutional racism as still evil in this country, ARE in fact the racists of the day. The NAACP is a Marxist organization, or mob controlled. They are also purveyors of racism. Always “playing the race card.”

Because Jackson, Sharpton and the NAACP are racists, they can be heaped with the ugliest epitaphs imaginable. It’s okay to call them even such things as nappy head, because they are the racists, and therefore deserve these terms. You see, when you are not a racist, and you identify the victim of racism as yourself, then why by definition you can’t say anything racist!

Indeed, the loudest cry from these demented haters is that there is no racism in America, anyone who says different is a racist. All that is behind us. Why can’t white people form into organizations like the NAACP? Why can’t they call themselves “white Americans?

Racism is done, ala Michele Bachmann, and her vapid rewrite of history wherein the Founding Fathers ended slavery.

Ain’t it just so neat?

This redefining allows these same folks to decry Latinos and Arabs to their heart’s content. Because it’s got nothing to do with them as them. It’s got to do with them–acting as Them. You know, being Illegals and flying planes into buildings. It’s a free ticket to call all the names you wish, because it ain’t racism.

Can’t you see that?

It allows the final insult. We can call the President vile names and his wife equally vile ones. Why? Just because he’s defined as a racist (ala Mr. Beck) and we ALL know he’s nothing but a dirty Muslim/socialist, communist. It’s not because we still secretly hate B L A C K.  Have you heard that word said, with the acid dripping. No mistaking it. It’s the big N, but pronounced BLECK.

We can claim we aren’t racist because we listen to Juan Williams and we support Alan Keyes and we think we have a good house Negro in that fool from Florida. We loves us some a dos Negroes. They talk like us, the Clarence Thomas’s. They don’t want a “free” ride. They don’t want welfare and free homes, and all that stuff that comes out of my taxes. They DON’T THREATEN OUR PLACE AT THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN!

It’s good to know the language.

**I found a picture I almost used today. But then I thought it might be taken the wrong way. I’ll describe it. I’d really like your reaction. It was about 5 little tiny black chicks on a stone wall, and a single yellow chick  just below them, with its little wings spread and saying “N * * *ERS. I thought it was a powerful statement of the reality of our time, but again, was afraid it would be seen as humorous and therefore wrong. Let me know.

What a Difference a Day, errr, Month? Makes?

Tags

AFA, astrology, Bryan Fischer, DADT, dinosaurs, evolution, gay rights, Glenn Beck, GOP, homophobia, Huckabee, Media, Obama, Palin, polling, right wing extremists, Romney, science, Tim Pawlenty, voters

Well, slap me with a wet noodle. You remember me? Mad woman. Not literally mad, as in certifiable, but angry mad, ready to dump a sitting president and turn the page? Yes, you do remember.

Well, it’s hard to admit that at 60 years old, I’m still an idiot a lot of the time. Moreover, I spent some under grad years studying the fine art of politics as well as living through lots of political times. You’d think I would know better.

It appears that the brilliance of Barack Obama once more is most apparent to most of the people. This has not happened over night, and certainly isn’t a result only of the speech of a life-time in Tucson. The polls were edging upward before then.

But, things have changed, and one can but cast a bemused look upon Republicans who are looking at empty hands and wondering, “has it indeed slipped from our grasp once again?” Riding high in November, the GOP is beginning to mutter. To be sure, nothing is set in concrete yet, and given the fickleness of the public, it would be unwise to assume that “it’s in the bag” for 2012. Not at all.

Still, one has to be amazed at the resilience of the President. Today, he beats Romney and Huckabee in mock match-ups and slaughters the grifter, Palin. The big switch is the Independents who have moved to the Obama column. This poll straddled the Tucson tragedy, and has some impact but doesn’t include the speech given by Obama. There is only a 6 point differential between those who think we are on the right track-wrong track, down from a 24 point differential a couple of months ago. Obama’s approval rating has moved up to 53%.

We shall see what the future holds. But clearly most of us who were ready to move on were simply wrong. Obama has played his poor hand extremely well, and has accomplished much in the lame duck session.

The GOP will have a tough time selling a “NO” or repeal everything scenario I suspect with voters. The polls, dang ’em, just keep getting in the way of the agenda.

***

Speaking of agenda, the Extremist Right didn’t take civility on as a mantra for long. Once they realized that nobody except them viewed the President’s speech as a chastisement of the Left, they went back to their usual ranting. One, I”m told, said, “but the President must have been pointing to the Left, there is nobody on the Right who needs such a chastisement!”  Delusion lives on it seems in the rock heads of the Extremist Right.

***

Proof that nothing changes, Tim Pawlenty, who on Jon Stewart, the other night, refused to agree that there is something new in the vilification of Obama that has not been present in American politics before. Stewart suggested that painting the President as  Hitler, as a Socialist, as not an American, and as not a Christian didn’t reflect true beliefs but were being used as political ploys by certain GOP members and sympathizers. Pawlenty continually feigned ignorance of Stewart’s true meaning and kept pointing out that there was vitriol on both sides.

Now Pawlenty has appeared with Bryan Fischer, of American Family Association fame, and claimed that he would re-institute DADT if president. It’s not so much that he said this, bad and deluded as that is, but that he appeared with hate-monger Fischer at all. Fischer is a virulent homophobe, one who decries giving the Medal of Honor to a “defensive” action instead of a killing hero. As to DADT, Fischer has vowed to over turn it and has claimed that McCain would lead their forces. McCain has repudiated any such notion.

Pawlenty, who for a moment, suggested he would not have acted as Palin, seems unwilling to stand up for any real principles, but again, simply plays to the lowest common denominator of the Republican base. His chances of being the nominee are nil.

***

Efforts are underway to induce Fox Noise to fire Glenn Beck. Jewish Funds for Justice submitted a 10,000 name petition to the News Corp, calling on them to end their association with the hate-mongering extremist. I admit that we try to watch Beck from time to time, just to see, but frankly, after ten minutes, it’s so awful you just can’t. He parades a slew of pseudo-scientists, historians, economists, etc., to “prove” his wacky mean and dangerous conclusions, all to a live audience of nodding automatons. It’s surreal.

The petition included some of the more egregious accusations of Beck, which makes references to Hitler some 400 times in eighteen months. His comments are widely regarded as anti-semitic and a distorter of the Gospel. For instance he claims that social justice issues are a perversion of the Gospel message of Jesus Christ.

***

Don’t know if you heard this, but the darn earth moves. Okay, so you probably knew that. But it moves in relations to the stars, and THAT is a damnable thing. If you are into astrology. Which I’m not, but still. I’m an Aries, and so is the Contrarian. At least we were. I don’t know what he is, being an April 8. But me? I’m a April 15, and that now makes me a Taurus. I don’t like it. I am trying to figure out who to complain to. Is nothing sacred?

***
Warning: the following may be hazardous to the mental health of closed minds. Others read on. A new dinosaur has been found! A small guy, but pretty darn mean. Read all about Dawn Runner, who hails from Argentina, at PBS’s Rundown Blog. He’s most primitive.

Related Articles

• Pawlenty, Stewart spar over rhetoric (politico.com)
• Whatever It Takes (talkingpointsmemo.com)
• Tim Pawlenty Wants To Return To The Days Of DADT (lezgetreal.com)
• Jon Stewart To Tim Pawlenty: ‘Why Is The Right So Fearful Of Tyranny?’ (VIDEO) (huffingtonpost.com)
• From Palin to Pawlenty, GOP Presidential Prospects Grapple With Arizona Massacre (politicsdaily.com)

Welcome to America: Land of the Violent

Tags

America, Congress, editorial, Gabrielle Giffords, right wing extremists, Sarah Palin, teabaggers, violence

I confess that I spent most of my time yesterday simply reading what came across the Internet. I cover dozens of well-known and not so well-known political websites, as well as a plethora of religious, and other more general blogs.

 “If tweets could kill, then Sarah Palin would be dead of ten thousand pecks.” I wrote that, after viewing her Twitter page. She was vilified on @SarahPalinUSA. You see, she can’t control comments there. There was hardly any defense of her.

Not the same over on Facebook, where comments are regularly removed by those who write for her, when they get too critical of Ms. Palin. Perennial critics like myself, are simply banned from commenting at all. There, comments were unfailingly supportive.

It became interesting to read these remarks. “Libtards are at it again, making political points out of a tragedy,” one intoned. In fact this was stated repeatedly. Charges, were, as you might expect, lodged against the President who during the campaign said something like “if they bring a knife, we’ll bring a gun,” as evidence that Sarah was no worse an offender of violent rhetoric.

I think I recall the President’s remark and it was part of a string of analogous “if this, then that,” metaphors. Interestingly, that was the ONLY such remark anyone of the Sarah lovers could come up with. On the other hand, Sarah’s veer into the violent is scattered with dozens of such remarks.

“Don’t retreat-reload,” she says. “If you can’t climb the wall, then parachute in, . . .blood may be spilt. . .in our quest.” “Paling around with terrorists.”

More telling, her tweets were sanitized as were her websites for violent language. If that doesn’t suggest a guilty conscience I don’t know what would.The cross-hairs map was turned into “surveyors marks”.  This all was done, we are told, before her “condolences” were sent.

But of course, we agree, Sarah is not directly responsible, any more than Sharron Angle is when she noted that if they didn’t get their way, “Second amendment remedies” might have to be used. Any more than the man pictured above  is directly responsible. Or the woman who screamed at a tea party event, “this time the ballot box, next time bullets!”  Nor the crazy Paladino who threatened a reporter with violence, nor Jarred Kelly who opposed Giffords and invited his supports to “come on down and shoot a fully automatic rifle with me.”  Nor Bill O’Reilly who referred to the doctor murdered for his abortion activities as the “Killer Tiller.”

Don’t forget all the right-wing rhetoric that calls Obama “Hitler” and paints swastikas across his likeness. Nor the constant claims of Beck, Hannity, Fox in total, Palin and all the others that we are at war for the very existence of our way of life. That everyone on the left is determined to “destroy America.” This is the rhetoric we are used to hearing from the right-wing supremacists. They’ve been at it for years. But now the right-wing media and candidates are using fear, stark dramatic fear to gin up their followers.

Such rhetoric falls on the sane and the insane. The sane place it in context. The insane, the troubled, the mentally unstable, hear the words and find what they almost never find–a confirming of their ideas. Can you imagine how encouraging this can be?

We are a violent nation. Of that no one disagrees. We love our guns to distraction. Way beyond what the Founding Fathers could ever have intended or imagined, we now demand the right to have all manner of killing power in our homes, and increasingly to tote our weapons about where ever we go. More and more states, my own included, allow open carrying.

This is pure insanity. Our video games, our music and our movies and television fare is crammed to the neck with violence. If you were to believe it, every cop in America kills a suspect about every three or four days. The reality of it is that most cops never discharge their gun in their entire careers.

We have been this way it seems forever. A fair and impartial look at our history suggests that most of the time, life in the west during the mid-nineteenth century, was mean and hard. But we have glorified it. Cowboys and Indians are the natural history of most of us now in our middle age. We grew up on WWII movies where we always won the battle and killed the Krauts or Japs. Guns are as natural to us as bicycles.

It should come as no surprise that violence is part of our political rhetoric. Along with metaphors involving sports, it seems the easiest way to make a point that everybody “gets.” But that doesn’t make it right.

The demonizing of our political enemies is an offering to the crazy among us of our tacit approval of the plans they dream of carrying out, OUT OF NECESSITY TO SAVE THE NATION. The rhetoric of war and guns used to make points, is understood perfectly by them, but in literal terms.

We have to stop it. While I agree, that there is some of this on both sides, there is no question that the vast majority of it comes from the right-wing tea party and those that created them and constantly push their buttons.

If we don’t stop this, then this will be but one of a series of such tragedies we will suffer. Another 9-year-old’s life will be snuffed out for no good reason on God’s green earth. We bear this responsibility. We must stand UP and SPEAK OUT against the violence of our country. DENOUNCE those who speak violence. And continue to do so. Until it carries the same noxiousness as the “N” word and the “R” word, and all the other words we no longer use in any discourse.

The choice is yours and mine. What will you do?

Related Articles

• In Blaming Sarah Palin, Our Violent Culture Gets a Pass (politicsdaily.com)
• Sarah Palin removes ‘target list’ as ‘vitriolic rhetoric’ blamed for Arizona shooting (dailymail.co.uk)
• Special Comment: Violence and threats have no place in democracy (crooksandliars.com)

Murmurings From the Walls

Tags

Barack Obama, employment, GOP, health care reform, Iowa, Republicans, right wing extremists, same-sex marriage

Note to self: when night dreaming (wakefully contemplating the day past) and an idea for a blog post comes along, write it down. You will surely forget it by morning. And I did. So this ain’t it.

I’ve checked my mailbox, both snail and e, and so far, no letter from the President. He does contact me from time to time you know, asking for my help. I do the best I can.  But, sure that the letter is most likely just “lost in the mail” which means its not lost at all, but IN THE MAIL. . . I thought it best to give my advice right away, so there would be no delay. Time is running short.

The Reuglicans are promising that the American (right wing barely humans)  public will rise up in November and silly slap the prez for his arrogance in actually taking care of people and their health. Well, not so fast there partner. I’m thinking a new sheriff is in Dodge and the old rules may not apply.

I got to thinking about this as I thought about what happened in my own dear state of Iowa over the same-sex marriage brouhaha that occurred last year. There were all manner of threats of throw the bums out, repeal, replace, reproach all those deemed responsible. Much of it is was silly, and illegal frankly.

The truth is there is really only one way to alter the decision in Iowa and that is by constitutional amendment. And realistically, nobody sees that as likely, and even if it is, it wouldn’t get to a vote anytime before 2013. Now that is nearly four long years since the case was decided. And guess what? Time matters.

Time is the enemy of those who have a burning issue, no matter what it is. As we have pointed out before, Merikans have a very short attention span. The rabid crazies? No, they eat breath and sleep their issue, but they are a tiny gnat in a tornado. The majority of citizenry is on to other things–vacation spots, 401K outlays, summer soccer school, and what movie to watch tonight.

Moreover, the wackos promised utterly dire consequences from the same-sex decision. The state would be overrun by swishy girly men and crass talkin’ lesbos, all here to recruit, take up residence, and otherwise transform Iowa into a paradise of gayness, all part, mind you, of the international gay agenda, which any self-respecting homophobe can tell you all about, if’in you ask politely.

So as time goes on and nothing awful happens, meaning the doorbell isn’t ringing off the door frame requesting your children be given up to the only real lifestyle that matters, and as the time for planting violets approaches, the argument grows thin. I mean, explain to me Mr/Mrs/Ms wacko exactly why I need to drop everything, expend millions, all to prevent that nice couple that lives three blocks over from marrying?

Same thing with the Health care reform law. Time will prove out that nothing much has changed insofar as those things one holds near and dear–one’s sacrosanct possession of one’s private insurance (for them that has it of course). No tax increases, no ticket for your next checkup in 2012 as the first available date, no refusal to treat your asthma–you smoked away your lungs, tough titty buster–breathe as best you can.

While I’d like there to be a few more months to let this sink in, I think that a good deal of the fear and confusion will be decidedly forgotten come November.

So, Barack, my man, let me tell you what you really need to do. Everything and anything to produce jobs. I just told you that these people have short attention spans. And doing without that new WII game is getting tiresome. People want jobs, so they can buy things. They do need jobs to pay the bills and feed their kids too of course. So listen up and dag gum it find some jobs.

I propose that you start tons of public works. It wouldn’t be permanent employment, but they won’t grump, they will be happy to have the dough in hand.

Oh and a couple of times a month, travel to some nice niche of Merika, preferably where there is some purple mountain majesty, or oceans white with foam. Give a rousing speech ‘splainin’ all this Washington stuff, and take lots of pics. They love the keepsakes.

I’m thinking that the Dems will be doin’ just fine if you do that. Who was that other party? I think I’ve forgotten their name already. . . Re. . .something, GO. . .let me remember? All I recall is that they campaigned on NO and pretty much didn’t play nicely with others. And you remember what your 3rd grade teacher said about THAT don’t you?  But on the up side, they will be forever immortalized in the dictionary, under two words, irrelevant and cypher.

If I Were Gay, I’d Be in Love with Ellen

Tags

Dick Cheney, Ellen DeGeneres, Fox Noise, health care reform, Obama, racism, Rep. Joe Wilson, right wing extremists, Sean Hannity

Indeed, if I were a gay woman, Ellen is I think just my type. I mentioned yesterday, that Ellen has been named as the newest judge on American Idol. And additionally, her show has moved from CBS to ABC. I have had occasion to see it here and there, mostly when the Contrarian is busy, since he is always chomping at the bit to get to the news channels.

Anyway, I got a chance to watch a bit as I cooled down from my walk. And I remembered just how funny I find her. Her whit is so quiet and so innocent.

I realized that that humor is perhaps the most important attribute I look for in a relationship. As you undoubtedly know, I am deeply blessed in that the Contrarian has a fabulous sense of humor and keeps me laughing daily. It’s the very best elixir to a marriage I believe.

So her attractive countenance aside, I find her so funny as to be utterly endearing. Portia is no doubt a lucky woman to have such a lovely wife.

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I’m told that the Congressional cafeterias have removed all forms of metal cutlery from the dining area. Word is out that too many Republicans are talking about suicide these days.

While the rank and file somewhat rational GOP’ers were quick to condemn Joey (the mouth)Wilson’s outburst during the President’s speech, hoping this would cap the disaster quickly, that of course didn’t happen.

Wilson scurried over to the Foxy Noise people, who immediately commiserated with him, with Ann (the badger)Colter, calling him a “great American Statesman.” Similar mewlings came from the great Sean (you’ll believe anything I tell you morons) Hannity, who pouted that nobody apologized from the Democrats when they booed our President George (I read books!) Bush.

The funny part is that all the “defense” of Wilson people are so deluded that they don’t get it. We aren’t interested in vilifying Wilson. We want to shake his hand for doing exactly as we hoped. We didn’t know who of course, but we figured one of the wingnuts would take the bait and parade his/her hatred on national TV. He did, and we reaped the benefit in wonderful upticks in the polls.

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Oh we always are thrilled to mention our boy Sean. Sean, who never was one to look a gift opportunity in the mouth, shamelessly takes advantage of a niche and panders to the wacko right.

He’s been tagged more than once by deliberately sanitizing written statements to alter their meaning. Usually he quotes a sentence without the rest which would have made it clear that it means just the opposite from what Sean alleges.

Sean’s propensity for this seems to have increased, suggesting they are not finding much of an reality to gripe about. His latest: In the President’s speech Wednesday night, Obama, said that insurance CEO’s were NOT evil or bad, but motivated by profit concerns. Sean simply reported that he was aghast (yeah right) that the President had used to intemperate and ugly rhetoric in CALLING INSURANCE CEO’S BAD PEOPLE.

I’m inclined to think that Sean has so little regard for the admitted limited intelligence of his followers that he assumes they can’t understand what they hear either, and need his “interpretation.” He’s of course happy to alter the truth to suit his agenda. Not because he is a bad person of course, but only because he is motivated by profit concerns. And Sean gets richer and who cares about truth?

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No doubt a very few of my readers, fewer since I think  some have departed in disgust, disagree when I point out that much of the anti-health care anti-everything is in reality racism against the President. The fail to see that only either thoroughly mental defects or those who have latent and virulent racism can buy into the crazy world of birthers, deathers, parenters, and so forth legitimately. I might suggest that they suffer from one or the other themselves, but that would be mean.

In any case, lest there be any doubt as to the vicious hatred expressed by the far right, let me link you to a post by David Kahane in the National Review. If you think this is legitimate disagreement, I invite you to review the name given the President: His High Serene Highness, the Emperor, Barack Hussein Obama II, whom he afterwards refers to as Barry. His wife, Michelle is called Madame DeFarge. He makes some ugly references to the President’s vacation coinciding with Ramadan. If you don’t think racism is alive and well and being eaten up by the trailer-trash, beer swilling, bible thumpers, hatin’ them colored/black brown/oriental types, and fishy Muslim sneaks (not all adjectives apply to all persons), then you may be one of the above described.

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How could we pass up this gem. It seems that two retired Marine Generals have said enough is enough. They have renounced former vice president, Dick “The Dick” Cheney, for his continual championing of torture as something that works and has “kept us safe.”

Both, speaking in the Miami Herald, both said that the techniques and tactics used by the Bush-Cheney administration actually hampered efforts to fight al-Quaeda and resulted in additional harm to US service personnel who were captured by enemy forces.

Of course we all remember that polling suggests that the right wing evangelical church goer is the type most supportive of torture of enemy combatants. That’s I guess the answer they get when they ask, “What would Jesus do?”

Dr. Evil continues to try to protect his legacy as best he can by again giving responsible Republicans more reasons to wish for muzzles, and federal laws preventing retired politicos from opening their mouths without permission.

But in the end, Dick cares not about America, but about how he is remembered. I guess he doesn’t get that this kind of talk only digs his hole deeper. Republicans are already quick to say, “I never knew him,” and all before the cock has crowed three times too.