A Little "Joke"

Mitt Romney told a little “joke” in his stump speech in Michigan on Friday.


"I love being home in this place where Ann and I were raised, where both of us were born," he said. "Ann was born at Henry Ford Hospital; I was born at Harper Hospital. No one’s ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place that we were born and raised."

Some joke.

At least Republicans call it a joke. I wonder what they’d call it if Obama said, “I’ve been married to the same woman for twenty years. No one’s ever asked to see how many wives I have.”

“Whoa, thar, pardner, ya done gone too fur", I suspect we’d hear. “That thar’s a pickin’ on a man’s religion. Ya’all need to shut up ‘bout us a clingin to our guns and Bibles, too."

But it’s ok for Republicans to pick up one of the most hateful and divisive themes of intolerance in our politics and make a “joke”, though isn’t it?

Of course, it's ok if you're a Republican.

Was it even a joke? Or was it a “dog whistle” to keep the ignorant racists in his camp?

The Washington Post asked a few members of Romney’s audience about the birther remark.

Still, several voters interviewed after Romney and Ryan ended their rally Friday in Commerce said they interpreted Romney’s comment as a swipe at Obama.

“How did I read it? Well, there’s a lot of controversy about where Obama was born,” said Annie Lehmann, 59. “But that’s a secondary issue at this point. He’s got to fix the economy.”

Susan Cardel, 51, said she thought Romney’s comment was “hysterical.”

“That is still a big issue, isn’t it?” Cardel said. “I think it is, that Obama wasn’t born in America. I think Romney was just making a statement. He wasn’t trying to be mean or anything.”

Jim Gorcya, 72, said he read Romney’s comment as a suggestion that Obama’s birth certificate is not real.

“Obama doesn’t have one,” Gorcya said. “He wasn’t born here, and he can’t find his. Romney’s got a birth certificate. Obama can’t find his. If Obama was a real citizen, he would show it.”

If it was a joke, it was inappropriate, and lame. It was as inappropriate and lame as my hypothetical one above. Either way, it is not his privilege to go there. Republicans can make all the jokes they want about what Obama said or has done.

Making light of a falsehood, one manufactured and propelled by racist hate that could only appeal to bigots, is outside the bounds of decency.

But Republicans never could win elections by being decent, could they?

Not-so-fast-but-but-furious

As soon as I saw the movie theatre shooting on the news, I told my friend, watch, tomorrow we'll hear this was done by Obama as part of his evil socialist plot to take our guns.

Sure enough:

Is Batman massacre staged terror?

I'm reassured as this is all meticulously explained by Alex Jones's "overwhelming evidence" in his "gut".

It "magically happened". What more do we need to know?

Not-so-fast-but-but-furious Right Wingers probably won’t read the Fortune article that best explains the ATF Fast and Furious episode, because they already know all they need to know from FOX(R) and talk radio. I’d like to share my favorite short paragraphs just in case one might read what I write before their lunacy kicks into overdrive.

They (ATF) insist they never purposefully allowed guns to be illegally trafficked. Just the opposite: They say they seized weapons whenever they could but were hamstrung by prosecutors and weak laws, which stymied them at every turn.

...Irony abounds when it comes to the Fast and Furious scandal. But the ultimate irony is this: Republicans who support the National Rifle Association and its attempts to weaken gun laws are lambasting ATF agents for not seizing enough weapons—ones that, in this case, prosecutors deemed to be legal.

This won’t help the irony-impaired, cult indoctrinated believers who cannot question the lie that Fast and Furious was a, ” progressive democrat sponsored death by way of pushing guns to Mexican drug cartels."

Nothing can separate the willfully ignorant from their beliefs. “Liberals are commies”. “Obama is a Kenyan Marxist out to destroy America with death panels”. “Democrats want to take our guns”. Yadda, yadda, ad nauseam.

I have been a firearm owner all my life. I was lucky to come from a small town/rural county where gun ownership was a common responsibility, not a paranoid fantasy of some right to kill other humans.

Sanity requires some common sense firearm restrictions. Even the NRA doesn’t advocate the right to carry rocket propelled grenade launchers or 20mm Gatling guns. Who thinks it’s a good idea to arm someone convicted of domestic violence, or prison inmates, or psych ward patients?

But there are fools and racists out there who think Zimmerman should have his pistol handed back to him, with an "attaboy, go git 'em" slap on the back.

I don’t think banning guns is a practical idea, but banning firearm regulations is foolish, hard-headed and dangerous. Bottom line: Everyone reasonably sane is in favor of some gun control. Period.

Only one side refuses reasonably sane compromise. As usual.

Republicans Against Thinking

Now that the Supreme Court has ruled Obamacare is constitutional, we can all huddle in terror and tremble for our lost liberty, the death of freedom, the complete government takeover of health care, and last but not least, death panels.

Cue fear reaction.

We were warned.

Those of us who are even moderately informed, and have a slight ability for critical thinking, won't be holding our breaths waiting to be shown those death panels the Right Wing authoritarians were shrieking about not so long ago.

Yes they lied. No matter. They will always lie.

The greatest threat to authoritarians is the ability of people to think for themselves.

It's time the Radical Right did something about this dire threat to their propaganda and power.

Let’s look to Texas Republicans for their solution to neutralize this threat. Check this from Education Week:

"Texas GOP: No More Critical Thinking in Schools"

The 2012 Texas Republican Party Platform, adopted June 9 at the state convention in Forth Worth, seems to take a stand against, well, the teaching of critical thinking skills. Read it for yourself:


“We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student's fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.”


Right. We all know whose “beliefs” and “authority” are threatened by critical thinking.

Not surprisingly, it turns out the authoritarians are urging for more authority.

In that same section of the document, labeled "Educating Our Children," the Texas Republicans go on to state that they "oppose mandatory pre-school and Kindergarten." And, in a statement that human rights groups (and many others) will find difficult to stomach, the platform says, "We recommend that local school boards and classroom teachers be given more authority to deal with disciplinary problems. Corporal punishment is effective and legal in Texas."


While corporal punishment is in fact legal in Texas—and 18 other states, according to The Center for Effective Discipline—we're still poking around to find the research backing its effectiveness in the Lone Star State. Nothing so far. Readers, let us know what you come across.

And while you’re at it, let us know where we can find one of those death panels, too.

Nothing so far? Keep looking. The “liberal media” must be hiding them somewhere.

Authoritarian leaders would never misinform us and demand we take their word for anything, right?

Flag Day

Typically we see everyone put their flags out on the Fourth of July, Memorial Day, or Veterans Day. Since it is not an official federal holiday, most Americans probably don’t know today is Flag Day.

A quick Wikipedia reference tells us:

In the United States Flag Day is celebrated on June 14. It commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States, which happened that day by resolution of the Second Continental Congress in 1777. The United States Army also celebrates the Army Birthday on this date; Congress adopted "the American continental army" after reaching a consensus position in the Committee of the Whole on June 14, 1775.


In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation that officially established June 14 as Flag Day; in August 1949, National Flag Day was established by an Act of Congress.

Once again I fly over our house my late father-in-law’s flag I inherited. I feel a strong sense to honor the man and his flag and our country in doing so. He was a Bronze Star veteran of Patton’s Third Army in the Second World War. His 318th Infantry Regiment was the infantry support for the famous Fourth Armored Division’s breakthrough to relieve Bastogne in December of 1944. I’ve been an avid reader of WWII history after learning of his service, and that of my uncle, who was awarded a Silver Star during the same Battle of the Bulge.

For perspective, America’s bloodiest battle cost us unimaginably horrific losses of over 10,000 killed, 47,000 wounded, and 23,000 missing.

This is but one reason I want to see his flag flying as long as possible. It represents the very best of our national spirit of freedom.

Yes, I am aware that the flag was also a symbol and representation of entirely different things for American Indians through history. Fortunately that was an exception and not the rule.

We need to be watchful that our flag does not become a symbol of theft, conquest and aggression.

And we need to remember the flag, for all it represents, is still a symbolic image and representation of something greater. It represents our nation, our people, our land, our dreams, our history, and our future.

And our Constitution.

As the late great Molly Ivans reminded us, former Rep. Craig Washington once said during a lonely soliloquy on the floor of the Texas Senate: "I prefer a man who will burn the flag and then wrap himself in the Constitution to a man who will burn the Constitution and then wrap himself in the flag."

Figuratively far too much of that has been going on the past decade.

Now if only we can bring more attention to Constitution Day (Citizens Day) September 17, the day the U.S. Constitutional Convention signed the Constitution in 1787.

We need to wave that more often.

Truth Spill

They say a gaffe in Washington is when a politician tells the truth. When a Republican does it, it's more than a mere gaffe. He's going to be in trouble.

From The Virginian-Pilot:

Stimulus helped Virginia weather crisis

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican, wandered off script somewhat Sunday as a surrogate for the Mitt Romney presidential campaign, saying that President Barack Obama's stimulus measures helped his state weather the economic crisis.


McDonnell, a potential vice presidential candidate who has sought to walk a tightrope between conservatives and moderates, said on CNN's "State of the Union" that federal assistance aided Virginia in balancing its budget, but he said it had no positive long-term impact.


"Did it help us in the short run with health care and education and spending to balance the budget? Sure," McDonnell said. "Does it help us in the long term to really cut the unemployment rate? I'd say no."

During his CNN appearance, when asked whether Obama deserved "just a tiny bit of credit" for helping the economy, McDonnell said: "Well, sure. I think there are national policies that have had some impact."

Oops. Some truth was inadvertently spilled by a Republican. He’d better get back with the program. He's going to have to lie about how tax cuts for the rich are going to create jobs and deregulating Wall Street will lead to prosperity for all.
 
Ah, here we go.
 
McDonnell also criticized Obama for "overburdensome regulations" and argued that Republican-led states have fared better during the downturn and struggling recovery.


"Think how much better we'd do if we had President Romney," he said.

I'm afraid that little backtrack shall elicit little mercy upon him in the court of King Rushbo the Corpulent.

He's toast.

Don't Be Cruel

John McCain defended Romney's career on Fox News Sunday, saying, “The only place in the world that I can recall where companies never failed was the old Soviet Union. ... And yes, the free enterprise system can be cruel.”

Yes, John, it can be very cruel. Not to you, or Mitt (the Snip) Romney, or the aristocratic elites of the Republican Party, the economic elites of Wall Street, or the Koch Brothers. No, the "free enterprise system" is cruel to the American people trampled under the gilded jackboot of the corporatocracy that has seized our government and subsumed and neutralized our democracy.

The cold cruel claws of unregulated capitalism and it's servile class of minions in the Republican and Democratic Parties will reduce our country into the same conditions the Soviets inflicted on their population.

The cold cruel monstrosities of the Big Money Club already rub their hands in anticipation of austerity for the masses and increased wealth and power for the elites.

It takes cruel men to inflict cruelty on others. This is the inevitable result from the destruction of democracy.

It's About Character

Republicans love to tell us, “It’s about character”. Never their own, mind you.

John Edwards is a slimeball for cheating on his wife.

But Newt Gingrich is not a slimeball.

Simple enough for the simple-minded ideologue. We’ll look at an explanation for this in a moment.

Willard (Mitt-the-Snip) Romney led a group of fellow prep school bullies in taking down a fellow student and forcibly cutting his hair, while the victim screamed for help.

Everyone in his posse remembers the incident, except for Romney, for some reason.

“I don’t remember that incident,” Romney said, laughing. “I certainly don’t believe that I thought the fellow was homosexual.”

I see.

So Mitt remembers the individual, but not what he did to him?

“Back in high school, I did some dumb things, and if anybody was hurt by that or offended, obviously I apologize for that,” Romney told Fox (R)’s Brian Kilmeade. Romney added: “I participated in a lot of hijinks and pranks during high school, and some might have gone too far, and for that I apologize.”

We note that he offered the typical Right Wing lame excuse for an “apology” laced with mitigating terms like “if” and “might”.

Well, “if” Willard can’t remember his bully behavior, then he “might” not be smart enough to be president. And if he lied about it, he’s not moral enough to be dogcatcher.

But we already know that.

Former Nixon White House Counsel John Dean’s 2006 book titled “Conservatives without Conscience” gives us valuable insight into the dark recesses of the radical right-wing mentality. Authoritarian personalities like Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh dominate their ideology.

They are bullies.

John Dean summarizes in a 2008 BuzzFlash interview:

In post-World War II, a group of social scientists were very concerned or very interested to find out if what had happened in Italy and Germany under Mussolini and Hitler could occur in the United States. They initially undertook their work with a little bit of empirical study, but mostly relying on Freudian psychology. And they did conclude that there is clearly an authoritarian personality. They issued their report in a book by Adorno and others that was called “The Authoritarian Personality”.


This research has really never been totally refuted. But other social scientists were critical of it because of its Freudian basis. So they quickly began studying to see if this personality type held up based on pure empirical study, by which I mean anonymously asking people questions that would reveal their personality types, their attitudes, their dispositions, and what have you.


The work on authoritarian followers showed a personality that is easily submissive to authority, be it political, religious or even parental. They submit quickly, and once they do, they become very aggressive in pushing that world view of that authority. They become submissive because they find great comfort psychologically in submitting. It helps them remove the ambiguities of life. And if they’re frightened by events, then this gives them a sense of security. And they’re typically very conventional in their lifestyle.


There are also, however, a lot of very negative traits which I’ve outlined in the book. They are very self-righteous. They are not self-critical. They have very little critical thinking about their own behavior. They are often nasty and mean-spirited. They are bullies. They are prejudiced. And the higher they test on these questionnaires and scales, the more conservative they are. You don’t find people on the left testing the same way. It’s very interesting. You cannot get even statistically significant numbers of people on the left that fall in this category of followers.


On the other side are the leaders. They are typically men whose desire in life is to dominate others and to be in charge. They are very aggressive when they do so. They are highly manipulative. They are also people who have absolutely no appreciation of equality of others. They see themselves as superior, and they are amoral in their thinking. They, too, have a host of other negative traits that are in many regards similar to the followers.


It’s not a very pleasant personality type, but it is certainly there. And it has certainly been established scientifically and corroborated and confirmed, time and time again. And this is clearly the core of the conservative movement.


‘The core of the conservative movement”. Amen.

Dean relied on Professor Bob Altemeyer of the University of Manitoba for much of his reference material. Professor Altemeyer has generously made his book available for free online.

“The Authoritarians”