It’s that miserable time of the year. Right wingers are miserable because Obama will be president. Lefties are miserable over Bush being, for 54 more days, president of our once magnificent country. Never has so much utter failure and sheer disaster been dumped on an incoming president. The excitement of the election has subsided into a relatively moderate mix of anticipation and anxiety.
Thanksgiving is upon us with its own familiar and familial mix of anticipation and anxiety.
Corporate America is desperately hoping there’s enough consumer cash left in our pockets to give them a profitable shopping season. I wouldn’t want to be them right now.
The collapse of the unregulated greed-fueled economy has shifted everyone’s expectations for the coming year. Hopes for a happy and prosperous new year are deflating into a nervous desire for simple survival. We all have a sick stirring of dread in our collective gut about the remaining effects yet to be felt from the ruinous Bush Administration policies of pillage, plunder and scorched earth.
And so now in this setting Americans are expected to celebrate Thanksgiving. The only thankful soul I’ve seen so far, other than the Decider eagerly planning to “refill the old coffers” with his retirement speaking engagements, is the turkey pardoned by Sarah Palin. Yet, why do I think his pardon will not be honored?
Somehow I still have to feel a sense of thankfulness.
For one thing, I’m damn thankful I was not one of those early pilgrim settlers. They went though almost as much hell as they inflicted upon the native tribes. No, I wouldn’t care to trade places with them.
I’m also very thankful I’m not a “liberated” Iraqi. Those poor souls have suffered more than their share.
I guess that makes me thankful to be a citizen of the collapsing empire that has finally come to realize the consequences of unleashed corporatism and its over-extended projection of power.
If you’re the kind of person who can’t stand to be bored, you can be very thankful. We will not be bored witnessing the events of the coming years. I’ve come to understand how much I would be happy to simply be bored. I guess that’s some small insight I could be thankful about.
I am truly thankful for all the great bloggers out there for me to read. I am also thankful for the discerning and kind readers who may enjoy these little rants. We can be thankful we’re all in this together and are able to share our individual perspectives. It is good to know there are many others out there like us.
So let us be thankful for the simple things. We have home and hearth, family and friends, and food and drink.
Let’s enjoy our brief bubble of hope before the next administration takes the helm. At least we can be thankful that after January, we won’t be as disappointed, angry, and frustrated as we’ve been for the past eight years.
And finally, we can be thankful for not having to worry about having too much money anymore.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Our New Conservative Friend
I saw an interesting survey while watching the Sunday pundits this morning. The USA Today/Gallup poll was gauging the public’s reaction to Barack Obama getting elected president last Tuesday. The poll found that 67% of the American people felt proud that Obama was elected. And 67% felt optimistic as well. Gee, maybe God DID bless America.
But, wait. You realists are probably wondering about the rest of the public.
It reported 30% said they are pessimistic. And 27% even said they were afraid. I think I can relate to someone being pessimistic. Been there, done that.
More troubling though, is how would all those poor souls become afraid? It’s not as if there were prominent Republican types accusing Obama of being some kind of secret, madras-schooled, Muslim radical. There couldn’t have been good, church-goin’, uninformed pageant divas out there saying he was pallin’ around with terrorists or nasty stuff like that, right? It has nothing to do with the fact that on the Thursday after the election, Rush Limbaugh used the words “Obama” and “fear” together about six times in the five minutes I heard him.
I don’t know. I give up. I don’t have a clue why good authoritarian Americans would be afraid.
I DO know that, according to our favorite conservative with a conscience, John Dean, 25% of our population are Right Wing Authoritarians. His book “Conservatives without Conscience” explains how Right Wing Authoritarian personalities are devoted to their leaders, no matter where they lead them. The RWA personalities remain loyal followers, regardless of facts or conditions that would suggest to everyone else that new leadership is required. RWA folks do not believe that all people are equal, and they would even think totalitarian rule would be a good idea. One other interesting point about RWA personalities is they all consider themselves conservatives.
Not all people who consider themselves conservative are RWA, but half of them are. And they are very vocal and active, which is why it is up to moderates and liberals to be constantly vigilant, and not allow them power over the rest of us.
It’s strangely amusing to think of these loud, militaristic bullies and tough guys being fearful. But, since they are told by their leadership to be afraid, then that’s just what they’ll be. They march lockstep all the way, whether to glory, or to trembling, sputtering confusion. How odd.
The Bush Administration is the greatest ascension of Right Wing Authoritarians in American government. We’ve had them around for many years, but this is their pinnacle. We see RWA personalities from Bush, Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Gonzales, down to Libby, DeLay, Abramoff, and Blackwater CEO Erik Prince. And yes, we can’t forget John McCain and Sarah Palin.
We learn from John Dean and Bob Altemeyer, Dean’s source on authoritarian personality research, RWA personalities are revealed by their own answers to questionnaires and surveys. They share a number of characteristics. The Right Wing Authoritarian leaders are social dominators and are typically men. They oppose equality, desire power, cheat to win, and take advantage of “suckers”. They are pitiless, vengeful, manipulative, dishonest, mean-spirited, militant, and nationalistic. Their Right Wing Authoritarian followers are men and women, submissive to authority, aggressive on behalf of authority, conventional, highly religious, mean-spirited, intolerant, narrow-minded, hypocritical, moralistic, dogmatic, and highly self-righteous.
I would add that they seem to share the psychological mechanism of projection. They accuse others of the wrongful or undesirable behavior they themselves act out. There are numerous examples, but one of my favorites is Sarah Palin accusing Obama of being a socialistic “re-distributer of wealth”, while forgetting she bragged about taking oil companies’ tax dollars and re-distributing them through checks mailed out to Alaskans.
This all brings me to share a “special comment” with you. I was going to respond in the comment thread, but I feel this individual is entitled to some of the attention he craves.
I’d like to thank our conservative reader for his thoughtful comment.
You insignificant coackroach! How can you speak of stealing an election when you just won! This anger and irreverant stupid thinking is what keeps you detestable liberals in the hole of dispair. How is it possible that only Republicans steal elections? No, no fraud or misappropriations by the Dems, right? Obama was clean as a whistle regardless of his Chicago politicking and all the shady associations. You better understand the facts as they are my little "roach". Do your homework before you speak. Look at he election maps. The majority of the country is red! You may not like it, but conservatives can actually vote across party lines at times and when they really have indifference for their chosen candidate they stay home. Remember this my little pest: 57,000,000,000 that is the number that voted against the O man. It is a very fine line indeed! You Libs own nothing. The Hill in nervous and for good reason. I see red in 2010!
I’ll try not to let the flattery of his opening sentence go to my head. As a humble gentleman of mature years, I understand my insignificance in the big picture. By reminding him of a cockroach, I wonder if I am being complimented as a tenacious survivor of a great human cataclysm; perhaps something on the scale of the Bush Regime’s wanton destruction of human lives and the Earth’s environment.
But enough about me. Let’s return to our conservative reader’s own words and give them their due consideration. He was kind enough to enlighten us with his clear thinking and his probing sense of history and current events.
Let’s assume this is a question. “How can you speak of stealing an election when you just won!”
We’ve had eight years to practice.
“This anger and irreverant stupid thinking is what keeps you detestable liberals in the hole of dispair.”
Funny, for some reason I don’t feel angry right now. How about all the rest of you liberals out there? Do you think he read those irreverent words at the top of the blog? So Mark Twain WAS a detestable liberal, after all. If only Obama COULD bring some kind of hope to the liberals’ hole of despair. My, how our bleeding hearts suffer so pitifully.
How is it possible that only Republicans steal elections? No, no fraud or misappropriations by the Dems, right?
Good questions. How on Earth can this be possible? Republicans would never steal an election. They couldn’t purge voter registration rolls of thousands of eligible voters in Florida before the 2000 election, right? They wouldn’t crush the will of the majority of American voters by stopping the ballot re-count, would they?
Wasn’t it back in 2003 when Wally O’Dell, the CEO of Diebold, said he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year”? It’s not like there was complete Republican control over those electronic voting machines, right? There couldn’t have been any tampering with those easily hacked and altered voting machines. Ohio Republican Secretary of State Ken Blackwell had no conflict of interest running the election, did he? He knew they didn’t need no stinking paper trail.
SO WHAT if one of the machines counted more votes for Bush than the actual number of voters?
“Obama was clean as a whistle regardless of his Chicago politicking and all the shady associations.”
If you say so.
“You better understand the facts as they are my little "roach". Do your homework before you speak. Look at he election maps. The majority of the country is red!”
Wow! Look at all the red on that map! You got me there, pal. If all those red acres of land had only voted for McCain, things would be different.
“You may not like it, but conservatives can actually vote across party lines at times and when they really have indifference for their chosen candidate they stay home.”
And this is why I dearly love thoughtful intelligent conservatives.
“Remember this my little pest: 57,000,000,000 that is the number that voted against the O man. It is a very fine line indeed!”
Fifty-seven billion, eh? It’s like you have one of those Diebold chips in your head, adding all those extra votes for the Republicans.
“My little pest.” How endearing! I’m beginning to like you, too. I am so happy you stopped by. Really.
“You Libs own nothing. The Hill in nervous and for good reason. I see red in 2010!”
Yeah, we libs own nothing. We’re just a bunch of socialists who share everything, air, water, public lands, parks, even our culture, arts, education, knowledge, experience, ability to think for ourselves, all that stuff you might think is worthless.
And I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re seeing red right now.
But, wait. You realists are probably wondering about the rest of the public.
It reported 30% said they are pessimistic. And 27% even said they were afraid. I think I can relate to someone being pessimistic. Been there, done that.
More troubling though, is how would all those poor souls become afraid? It’s not as if there were prominent Republican types accusing Obama of being some kind of secret, madras-schooled, Muslim radical. There couldn’t have been good, church-goin’, uninformed pageant divas out there saying he was pallin’ around with terrorists or nasty stuff like that, right? It has nothing to do with the fact that on the Thursday after the election, Rush Limbaugh used the words “Obama” and “fear” together about six times in the five minutes I heard him.
I don’t know. I give up. I don’t have a clue why good authoritarian Americans would be afraid.
I DO know that, according to our favorite conservative with a conscience, John Dean, 25% of our population are Right Wing Authoritarians. His book “Conservatives without Conscience” explains how Right Wing Authoritarian personalities are devoted to their leaders, no matter where they lead them. The RWA personalities remain loyal followers, regardless of facts or conditions that would suggest to everyone else that new leadership is required. RWA folks do not believe that all people are equal, and they would even think totalitarian rule would be a good idea. One other interesting point about RWA personalities is they all consider themselves conservatives.
Not all people who consider themselves conservative are RWA, but half of them are. And they are very vocal and active, which is why it is up to moderates and liberals to be constantly vigilant, and not allow them power over the rest of us.
It’s strangely amusing to think of these loud, militaristic bullies and tough guys being fearful. But, since they are told by their leadership to be afraid, then that’s just what they’ll be. They march lockstep all the way, whether to glory, or to trembling, sputtering confusion. How odd.
The Bush Administration is the greatest ascension of Right Wing Authoritarians in American government. We’ve had them around for many years, but this is their pinnacle. We see RWA personalities from Bush, Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Gonzales, down to Libby, DeLay, Abramoff, and Blackwater CEO Erik Prince. And yes, we can’t forget John McCain and Sarah Palin.
We learn from John Dean and Bob Altemeyer, Dean’s source on authoritarian personality research, RWA personalities are revealed by their own answers to questionnaires and surveys. They share a number of characteristics. The Right Wing Authoritarian leaders are social dominators and are typically men. They oppose equality, desire power, cheat to win, and take advantage of “suckers”. They are pitiless, vengeful, manipulative, dishonest, mean-spirited, militant, and nationalistic. Their Right Wing Authoritarian followers are men and women, submissive to authority, aggressive on behalf of authority, conventional, highly religious, mean-spirited, intolerant, narrow-minded, hypocritical, moralistic, dogmatic, and highly self-righteous.
I would add that they seem to share the psychological mechanism of projection. They accuse others of the wrongful or undesirable behavior they themselves act out. There are numerous examples, but one of my favorites is Sarah Palin accusing Obama of being a socialistic “re-distributer of wealth”, while forgetting she bragged about taking oil companies’ tax dollars and re-distributing them through checks mailed out to Alaskans.
This all brings me to share a “special comment” with you. I was going to respond in the comment thread, but I feel this individual is entitled to some of the attention he craves.
I’d like to thank our conservative reader for his thoughtful comment.
You insignificant coackroach! How can you speak of stealing an election when you just won! This anger and irreverant stupid thinking is what keeps you detestable liberals in the hole of dispair. How is it possible that only Republicans steal elections? No, no fraud or misappropriations by the Dems, right? Obama was clean as a whistle regardless of his Chicago politicking and all the shady associations. You better understand the facts as they are my little "roach". Do your homework before you speak. Look at he election maps. The majority of the country is red! You may not like it, but conservatives can actually vote across party lines at times and when they really have indifference for their chosen candidate they stay home. Remember this my little pest: 57,000,000,000 that is the number that voted against the O man. It is a very fine line indeed! You Libs own nothing. The Hill in nervous and for good reason. I see red in 2010!
I’ll try not to let the flattery of his opening sentence go to my head. As a humble gentleman of mature years, I understand my insignificance in the big picture. By reminding him of a cockroach, I wonder if I am being complimented as a tenacious survivor of a great human cataclysm; perhaps something on the scale of the Bush Regime’s wanton destruction of human lives and the Earth’s environment.
But enough about me. Let’s return to our conservative reader’s own words and give them their due consideration. He was kind enough to enlighten us with his clear thinking and his probing sense of history and current events.
Let’s assume this is a question. “How can you speak of stealing an election when you just won!”
We’ve had eight years to practice.
“This anger and irreverant stupid thinking is what keeps you detestable liberals in the hole of dispair.”
Funny, for some reason I don’t feel angry right now. How about all the rest of you liberals out there? Do you think he read those irreverent words at the top of the blog? So Mark Twain WAS a detestable liberal, after all. If only Obama COULD bring some kind of hope to the liberals’ hole of despair. My, how our bleeding hearts suffer so pitifully.
How is it possible that only Republicans steal elections? No, no fraud or misappropriations by the Dems, right?
Good questions. How on Earth can this be possible? Republicans would never steal an election. They couldn’t purge voter registration rolls of thousands of eligible voters in Florida before the 2000 election, right? They wouldn’t crush the will of the majority of American voters by stopping the ballot re-count, would they?
Wasn’t it back in 2003 when Wally O’Dell, the CEO of Diebold, said he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year”? It’s not like there was complete Republican control over those electronic voting machines, right? There couldn’t have been any tampering with those easily hacked and altered voting machines. Ohio Republican Secretary of State Ken Blackwell had no conflict of interest running the election, did he? He knew they didn’t need no stinking paper trail.
SO WHAT if one of the machines counted more votes for Bush than the actual number of voters?
“Obama was clean as a whistle regardless of his Chicago politicking and all the shady associations.”
If you say so.
“You better understand the facts as they are my little "roach". Do your homework before you speak. Look at he election maps. The majority of the country is red!”
Wow! Look at all the red on that map! You got me there, pal. If all those red acres of land had only voted for McCain, things would be different.
“You may not like it, but conservatives can actually vote across party lines at times and when they really have indifference for their chosen candidate they stay home.”
And this is why I dearly love thoughtful intelligent conservatives.
“Remember this my little pest: 57,000,000,000 that is the number that voted against the O man. It is a very fine line indeed!”
Fifty-seven billion, eh? It’s like you have one of those Diebold chips in your head, adding all those extra votes for the Republicans.
“My little pest.” How endearing! I’m beginning to like you, too. I am so happy you stopped by. Really.
“You Libs own nothing. The Hill in nervous and for good reason. I see red in 2010!”
Yeah, we libs own nothing. We’re just a bunch of socialists who share everything, air, water, public lands, parks, even our culture, arts, education, knowledge, experience, ability to think for ourselves, all that stuff you might think is worthless.
And I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re seeing red right now.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Morning In America
Time to wake up! It’s morning in America! Wipe those bleary teary eyes and look at what we’re up against.
Oh, I know what you’re thinking, “Hey, what do you mean ‘what we’re up against’? Didn’t the Democrats just win the presidency, senate and house?”
That’s right, but just because democrats are in majorities does NOT mean they are in charge. They have corporate string pullers working to get them to dance to their tune, and media jackals are nipping at their knees already.
Just today on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, we heard Tom Brokaw squawking on about the US being a “center-right country” and blathering about all the red acreage on the political map. As if the LAND is what’s center-right so we better be too.
I’m sick of the media spouting this crap right after we elect an African-American Democrat for president. What the hell does that say? Does Brokaw think that means we still want the Republicans to dictate the agenda? How is this election an affirmation of this center-right crap?
Give me a break. This is the corporatist propaganda that irks me down to the last fiber of my being. You just KNOW the media and the Republican echo chamber will be harping on about how Obama better not try anything that could be labeled progressive or worse yet, liberal.
It’s going to be up to us to make a lot of noise to break through the media swill. We have got to hold the Democrats’ feet to the fire. We must keep the pressure on them constantly to let them know who put them there and why we did it. They don’t give a bat’s fart about what we want unless we hound them at least as much the fundies and neocons hounded the Republicans into their freedom crushing agenda.
So up and at ‘em! To the barricades if need be. We are still at war for our freedom. The Bush Fascism machine remains standing and won’t come down by the initiative of self centered corporate democrats. Get on the phones and call them. Write them. Send letters, emails, cards, or telegrams. We need to rattle their cages and kick some ass if anything is to be done around here. You and I both know it.
Just because the neocons have been defeated does not mean they are out of business. They will be slithering from underneath their rocks sooner than Obama can take the oath of office. They are enemies to peace, freedom and our very survival. We must not simply defeat them. We must ELIMINATE THEM from our government. They are engineering their next takeover even as we celebrate the election.
So, hooray for Obama! Enjoy the celebrations.
Now let’s get real. We have a lot of work to do.
Oh, I know what you’re thinking, “Hey, what do you mean ‘what we’re up against’? Didn’t the Democrats just win the presidency, senate and house?”
That’s right, but just because democrats are in majorities does NOT mean they are in charge. They have corporate string pullers working to get them to dance to their tune, and media jackals are nipping at their knees already.
Just today on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, we heard Tom Brokaw squawking on about the US being a “center-right country” and blathering about all the red acreage on the political map. As if the LAND is what’s center-right so we better be too.
I’m sick of the media spouting this crap right after we elect an African-American Democrat for president. What the hell does that say? Does Brokaw think that means we still want the Republicans to dictate the agenda? How is this election an affirmation of this center-right crap?
Give me a break. This is the corporatist propaganda that irks me down to the last fiber of my being. You just KNOW the media and the Republican echo chamber will be harping on about how Obama better not try anything that could be labeled progressive or worse yet, liberal.
It’s going to be up to us to make a lot of noise to break through the media swill. We have got to hold the Democrats’ feet to the fire. We must keep the pressure on them constantly to let them know who put them there and why we did it. They don’t give a bat’s fart about what we want unless we hound them at least as much the fundies and neocons hounded the Republicans into their freedom crushing agenda.
So up and at ‘em! To the barricades if need be. We are still at war for our freedom. The Bush Fascism machine remains standing and won’t come down by the initiative of self centered corporate democrats. Get on the phones and call them. Write them. Send letters, emails, cards, or telegrams. We need to rattle their cages and kick some ass if anything is to be done around here. You and I both know it.
Just because the neocons have been defeated does not mean they are out of business. They will be slithering from underneath their rocks sooner than Obama can take the oath of office. They are enemies to peace, freedom and our very survival. We must not simply defeat them. We must ELIMINATE THEM from our government. They are engineering their next takeover even as we celebrate the election.
So, hooray for Obama! Enjoy the celebrations.
Now let’s get real. We have a lot of work to do.
Monday, November 3, 2008
My Endorsement
I was watching the Colbert Report the other night and was delighted to hear Stephen endorse Barack Obama for president. Yes, what a shock! Then he went on to explain his reason. He wants to get a good job running a combine on a new collective farm if Obama wins. Of course, Stephen said he would VOTE for McCain, while endorsing Obama.
Ever since his courageous presentation in front of Bush and the sycophantic press corps, Stephen has been one of my favorite real American heroes. I feel I must follow his example and endorse a candidate for president.
Since endorsements for president mean very little, whether it’s from a Hollywood star or Dick Cheney, it shouldn’t matter that my endorsement comes at such a late date in the election season.
First the bad news; I cannot endorse someone who voted for Bush’s FISA law. It was a horrible act of pandering to the corporate telecom industry, and an un-American assault on the Fourth Amendment of our Bill of Rights.
Therefore I will not endorse Barack Obama.
I hereby endorse Brian Moore for president.
Who is Brian Moore? Thanks to his appearance on the Colbert Report last week, many of us now know he is the Socialist Party candidate for president.
And in the style and manner of my hero, I will endorse Mr. Moore, but I must vote for Obama. After all, the first priority in reversing the USA’s descent into fascism is to remove the Republican Party from the White House. And the most practical way to do that is to vote for Obama.
Should the forces of darkness prevail and the Republicans steal the election again, many of us have justifiably considered moving to Canada. If the Republicans steal the presidency again, then any trace of democracy here in the US is dead and there is little reason to linger in a totalitarian empire in decay.
Oddly, it turns out, there are conservatives considering their options if Obama wins.
I know a bright young Republican couple who say they are moving to Canada if Obama wins.
None of that socialism crap for them, by Jiminy. They won't stand for it!
Ever since his courageous presentation in front of Bush and the sycophantic press corps, Stephen has been one of my favorite real American heroes. I feel I must follow his example and endorse a candidate for president.
Since endorsements for president mean very little, whether it’s from a Hollywood star or Dick Cheney, it shouldn’t matter that my endorsement comes at such a late date in the election season.
First the bad news; I cannot endorse someone who voted for Bush’s FISA law. It was a horrible act of pandering to the corporate telecom industry, and an un-American assault on the Fourth Amendment of our Bill of Rights.
Therefore I will not endorse Barack Obama.
I hereby endorse Brian Moore for president.
Who is Brian Moore? Thanks to his appearance on the Colbert Report last week, many of us now know he is the Socialist Party candidate for president.
And in the style and manner of my hero, I will endorse Mr. Moore, but I must vote for Obama. After all, the first priority in reversing the USA’s descent into fascism is to remove the Republican Party from the White House. And the most practical way to do that is to vote for Obama.
Should the forces of darkness prevail and the Republicans steal the election again, many of us have justifiably considered moving to Canada. If the Republicans steal the presidency again, then any trace of democracy here in the US is dead and there is little reason to linger in a totalitarian empire in decay.
Oddly, it turns out, there are conservatives considering their options if Obama wins.
I know a bright young Republican couple who say they are moving to Canada if Obama wins.
None of that socialism crap for them, by Jiminy. They won't stand for it!
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Rhymes With Witch
It looks like Michigan has its own red spots. There's not really much to add to this little gem. I'll bet she thinks she's one of those REAL Americans.
***
November 1, 2008
Grosse Pointe Farms woman denies Halloween candy to Obama supporters’ kids.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A Grosse Pointe Farms woman has doled out political tricks by refusing Halloween treats to children whose parents support Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
Shirley Nagel passed out candy Friday — but only to those who shared her support for Republican presidential candidate John McCain and running mate Sarah Palin.
Fox 2 News says a sign posted outside Nagel's house, about 12 miles west of Detroit, served notice to all trick-or-treaters. It read: "No handouts for Obama supporters, liars, tricksters or kids of supporters."
Nagel tells WJBK-TV that "Obama's scary." When asked about children who'd been turned away empty-handed and crying, she said: "Oh well. Everybody has a choice."
Fax and phone messages were left today at numbers listed in Nagel's name.
***
November 1, 2008
Grosse Pointe Farms woman denies Halloween candy to Obama supporters’ kids.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A Grosse Pointe Farms woman has doled out political tricks by refusing Halloween treats to children whose parents support Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
Shirley Nagel passed out candy Friday — but only to those who shared her support for Republican presidential candidate John McCain and running mate Sarah Palin.
Fox 2 News says a sign posted outside Nagel's house, about 12 miles west of Detroit, served notice to all trick-or-treaters. It read: "No handouts for Obama supporters, liars, tricksters or kids of supporters."
Nagel tells WJBK-TV that "Obama's scary." When asked about children who'd been turned away empty-handed and crying, she said: "Oh well. Everybody has a choice."
Fax and phone messages were left today at numbers listed in Nagel's name.
Friday, October 31, 2008
The View From The Bottom
Lately Mrs. Dubya and I have been recording the View to watch later in the evening. There are often spirited and heated exchanges during the Hot Topics portion of the show when the ladies start talking politics.
As most of you know, John McCain was a guest on the program on September 12th. He didn’t expect to get the toughest questioning he’s ever seen, before or since, on a national TV broadcast. To the disgrace and shame of our nation’s TV “journalists”, Meet the Press, CNN and the rest were softball picnics in comparison.
After McCain talked about rolling back Supreme Court decisions, Whoopi Goldberg asked him if he wanted to return to the days of slavery. Barbara Walters checked him when he crowed about Palin not talking pork-barrel earmarks.
The best part came when Joy Behar brought up the McCain ads accusing Obama of wanting to teach sex education to kindergartners and referring to Palin with his lipstick on a pig comment. “Now we know that those two ads are untrue, they are lies. And yet, you at the end of it say you approve these messages. Do you really approve these?"
McCain responded with another lie, of course. “Actually they are not lies.” Come on, Johnny. Everyone not sucked into the Fox News propaganda network knows they were lies.
For too long now the news media has been self-censoring itself to the point where they will repeat the right wing lies without challenge or fact check. The women on the View demonstrated great courage to refuse the usual corporate media lapdog role. Whoopi, Joy and Babs gave Americans their best view of the real McCain. They all deserve the Medal of Freedom for telling the liar to his face he's a liar. No wonder Larry King likes to have Joy substitute for him on his show.
But, wait. Isn’t there a loyal Republican cast member of the View? What about Elisabeth Hasselbeck? Her views are so far to the right that there are constant rumors about her taking a job at Fox. You gotta give her credit for chattering the Republican Party talking points at the other women. She feels she needs to talk as much as all the rest combined, just to assert the Right Wing lies. It may not take brains to lie about Obama wanting to raise everyone’s taxes, but it does take determination to spew the disinformation at such high decibels over the other’s voices. The poor girl has to constantly interrupt everyone just to keep on her message that Obama pals around with terrorists. Bless her cold, authoritarian, little heart.
I bring all this up because Ms. Hasselbeck has inspired one of her fans to launch their own viral email forwarded message. It was just my luck to finally receive her devoted follower’s passionate communication about how proud they were to be white. The title of the message was “PROUD TO BE WHITE - IT'S OK”.
Well, since it was “OK”, I thought I’d go ahead and read it.
And you know what? I didn’t think it was OK at all. So I responded to the sender and all the other recipients of this crap with an introduction of my own.
Be sure to scroll to the end for the part that’s really OK.
I don’t need to share it all with you, but here’s some of it so you get the idea. And I added my comment at the end.
On the heels of the discussion on The View this last week:
PROUD TO BE WHITE
Someone finally said it.
How many are actually paying attention to this?
There are African Americans,
Mexican Americans,
Asian Americans, Arab Americans,
Native Americans, etc.
.....And then there are just -
Americans..
You pass me on the street
and sneer in my direction.
You Call me ‘White boy,’
‘Cracker,’ ‘Honkey,’
‘Whitey,’ ‘Caveman,’
.....And that’s OK.
But when I call you Nigger,
Kike, Towel head,
Sand-nigger, Camel Jockey,
Beaner, Gook, or Chink,
.....You call me a racist.
If we had a White Pride Day
.....You would call us racists.
If we had White History Month
.....We’d be racists.
If we had any organization for only whites
to ‘advance’ OUR lives,
.....We’d be racists.
In the Million-Man March,
you believed that you were
marching for your race and rights.
If we marched for our race and rights,
.....You would call us racists.
You are proud to be black,
brown, yellow and red,
and you’re not afraid to announce it.
But when we announce our white pride
.....You call us racists. .
I am proud.
.....But, you call me a racist.
Why is it that only whites can be racists?
There is nothing improper about this e-mail.
Let’s see which of you are proud enough to send it on...
And if you’re proud to pass this along, you ARE a racist and probably a Republican.
And you think Joe the Plumber is a real licensed plumber making over $250,000 a year. Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, the Republican apprentice plumber, (If he’s a plumber at all) is a liar and swindler looking for fools to give him their money. He might be taking YOUR MONEY soon, for his new dumbass book or country music CD. Small minded, uninformed people with big egos are common authoritarian personalities in the American far right. Joe shares these same characteristics with his beloved Bush and Palin.
And one more thing. Please do (sorta) what the proud, white, democracy-hating Americans say in their flyers down south:
Democrats vote Tuesday. Republicans vote Wednesday.
As most of you know, John McCain was a guest on the program on September 12th. He didn’t expect to get the toughest questioning he’s ever seen, before or since, on a national TV broadcast. To the disgrace and shame of our nation’s TV “journalists”, Meet the Press, CNN and the rest were softball picnics in comparison.
After McCain talked about rolling back Supreme Court decisions, Whoopi Goldberg asked him if he wanted to return to the days of slavery. Barbara Walters checked him when he crowed about Palin not talking pork-barrel earmarks.
The best part came when Joy Behar brought up the McCain ads accusing Obama of wanting to teach sex education to kindergartners and referring to Palin with his lipstick on a pig comment. “Now we know that those two ads are untrue, they are lies. And yet, you at the end of it say you approve these messages. Do you really approve these?"
McCain responded with another lie, of course. “Actually they are not lies.” Come on, Johnny. Everyone not sucked into the Fox News propaganda network knows they were lies.
For too long now the news media has been self-censoring itself to the point where they will repeat the right wing lies without challenge or fact check. The women on the View demonstrated great courage to refuse the usual corporate media lapdog role. Whoopi, Joy and Babs gave Americans their best view of the real McCain. They all deserve the Medal of Freedom for telling the liar to his face he's a liar. No wonder Larry King likes to have Joy substitute for him on his show.
But, wait. Isn’t there a loyal Republican cast member of the View? What about Elisabeth Hasselbeck? Her views are so far to the right that there are constant rumors about her taking a job at Fox. You gotta give her credit for chattering the Republican Party talking points at the other women. She feels she needs to talk as much as all the rest combined, just to assert the Right Wing lies. It may not take brains to lie about Obama wanting to raise everyone’s taxes, but it does take determination to spew the disinformation at such high decibels over the other’s voices. The poor girl has to constantly interrupt everyone just to keep on her message that Obama pals around with terrorists. Bless her cold, authoritarian, little heart.
I bring all this up because Ms. Hasselbeck has inspired one of her fans to launch their own viral email forwarded message. It was just my luck to finally receive her devoted follower’s passionate communication about how proud they were to be white. The title of the message was “PROUD TO BE WHITE - IT'S OK”.
Well, since it was “OK”, I thought I’d go ahead and read it.
And you know what? I didn’t think it was OK at all. So I responded to the sender and all the other recipients of this crap with an introduction of my own.
Be sure to scroll to the end for the part that’s really OK.
I don’t need to share it all with you, but here’s some of it so you get the idea. And I added my comment at the end.
On the heels of the discussion on The View this last week:
PROUD TO BE WHITE
Someone finally said it.
How many are actually paying attention to this?
There are African Americans,
Mexican Americans,
Asian Americans, Arab Americans,
Native Americans, etc.
.....And then there are just -
Americans..
You pass me on the street
and sneer in my direction.
You Call me ‘White boy,’
‘Cracker,’ ‘Honkey,’
‘Whitey,’ ‘Caveman,’
.....And that’s OK.
But when I call you Nigger,
Kike, Towel head,
Sand-nigger, Camel Jockey,
Beaner, Gook, or Chink,
.....You call me a racist.
If we had a White Pride Day
.....You would call us racists.
If we had White History Month
.....We’d be racists.
If we had any organization for only whites
to ‘advance’ OUR lives,
.....We’d be racists.
In the Million-Man March,
you believed that you were
marching for your race and rights.
If we marched for our race and rights,
.....You would call us racists.
You are proud to be black,
brown, yellow and red,
and you’re not afraid to announce it.
But when we announce our white pride
.....You call us racists. .
I am proud.
.....But, you call me a racist.
Why is it that only whites can be racists?
There is nothing improper about this e-mail.
Let’s see which of you are proud enough to send it on...
And if you’re proud to pass this along, you ARE a racist and probably a Republican.
And you think Joe the Plumber is a real licensed plumber making over $250,000 a year. Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, the Republican apprentice plumber, (If he’s a plumber at all) is a liar and swindler looking for fools to give him their money. He might be taking YOUR MONEY soon, for his new dumbass book or country music CD. Small minded, uninformed people with big egos are common authoritarian personalities in the American far right. Joe shares these same characteristics with his beloved Bush and Palin.
And one more thing. Please do (sorta) what the proud, white, democracy-hating Americans say in their flyers down south:
Democrats vote Tuesday. Republicans vote Wednesday.
Monday, October 27, 2008
The Base
Well, who’da thunk? Now we know those editors must be socialists up there at the Anchorage Daily News.
They had the gall to endorse Barack Obama for president. Are they ever in for it if Sarah Palin wins her quest for unlimited, and as she informs us, constitutionally flexible, Cheney style power.
I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s already been given the phone taps to the editors’ private numbers by now. Heck, I bet she’s got her first dude cooking up some of that famous patented Palin vengeance to serve them once she’s back up north. It’s gonna be a long dark winter for those nasty gotcha journalists.
And speaking of gotcha journalism, did you catch that interview she and Johnny granted to NBC’s Brian Williams? Williams foolishly tried to ruffle her feathers by bringing up Colin Powell’s endorsement for Obama. She just reminded Williams that she and Johnny already had endorsements from 4 or 5 former Republican Secretaries of State. Who needs Powell anyway?
It didn’t matter that Powell and McCain were both republicans, or even that they were both Vietnam War veterans. Rush Limbaugh clearly saw that Powell was supporting Obama only because they were both black. Nothing escapes the great oxy-moron’s keen insight.
Williams couldn’t resist exposing his liberal elitist bias when he asked her who she thought the elitists were. The humbly garbed Sarah saw right through that little ploy. We learn that it’s not about being a member of the rich and famous ruling class that makes one an elitist. No, it’s those liberal socialists who think they are better than the Real Americans from all those pro-America small towns.
And I was so gullible to think $22,000 worth of professional make-up work would qualify someone as elitist. I suppose the McCain's $270,000 annual wages paid to their domestic staff wouldn't make them elitists, either.
Finally Williams futilely tried to snare Sarah with his gotcha question about who the terrorists are.
Brian Williams: Is an abortion clinic bomber a terrorist under this definition?
Sarah Palin: [Sighs] There’s no question Bill Ayers, via his own admittance, was, um, one who sought to destroy, er, our US Capitol and our Pentagon. That is a domestic terrorist. Ah, there’s no question there. Now, others who would want to engage in harming innocent Americans or um, facilities, that, uh, that would be unacceptable. Uh, I don’t know if you’re going to use the word “terrorist” there, but it’s unacceptable and, uh, it, er, would not be condoned, of course, on, on our watch, but I don’t know what you’re asking is if I regret referring to Bill Ayers as an unrepentant domestic terrorist. I don’t regret characterizing him as that.
Brian Williams: I’m just asking what other categories you would put in there. Abortion clinic bombers, protesters in cities where fires were started, Molotov cocktails were thrown, people died.
Sarah Palin: I would put in that category of Bill Ayers anyone else who would seek to campaign to destroy our United States Capitol and our Pentagon and would seek to destroy innocent Americans.
You see, it’s not terrorism when you bomb abortion clinics with their evil doctors, staff, and patients. Come to think of it, those kinds of people are not even REAL Americans, let alone innocent Americans.
It may be unacceptable and not condoned, but easily forgiven and pardoned if the bomber is a real American.... Like say, Joe the plumber. We can’t use the word “terrorist” for those who believe that bombing is a form of oh, say, religious expression. Those fundamentalist types are part of what is called “the base”. They are the common folk who always fall in line behind the wedge issues to vote republican. Sarah was brought into the campaign to appeal to the base.
How can we call someone who thinks God wants them to punish the wicked enemies of their religion a terrorist? Sarah can clearly judge such distinctions.
It’s not like they’re crazed Muslim fundamentalists who think Allah wants them to kill infidels. Now those nuts are clearly terrorists. They even label their radical group with the sinister name of al-Qaeda. That would be the Arabic word for “the base”.
They had the gall to endorse Barack Obama for president. Are they ever in for it if Sarah Palin wins her quest for unlimited, and as she informs us, constitutionally flexible, Cheney style power.
I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s already been given the phone taps to the editors’ private numbers by now. Heck, I bet she’s got her first dude cooking up some of that famous patented Palin vengeance to serve them once she’s back up north. It’s gonna be a long dark winter for those nasty gotcha journalists.
And speaking of gotcha journalism, did you catch that interview she and Johnny granted to NBC’s Brian Williams? Williams foolishly tried to ruffle her feathers by bringing up Colin Powell’s endorsement for Obama. She just reminded Williams that she and Johnny already had endorsements from 4 or 5 former Republican Secretaries of State. Who needs Powell anyway?
It didn’t matter that Powell and McCain were both republicans, or even that they were both Vietnam War veterans. Rush Limbaugh clearly saw that Powell was supporting Obama only because they were both black. Nothing escapes the great oxy-moron’s keen insight.
Williams couldn’t resist exposing his liberal elitist bias when he asked her who she thought the elitists were. The humbly garbed Sarah saw right through that little ploy. We learn that it’s not about being a member of the rich and famous ruling class that makes one an elitist. No, it’s those liberal socialists who think they are better than the Real Americans from all those pro-America small towns.
And I was so gullible to think $22,000 worth of professional make-up work would qualify someone as elitist. I suppose the McCain's $270,000 annual wages paid to their domestic staff wouldn't make them elitists, either.
Finally Williams futilely tried to snare Sarah with his gotcha question about who the terrorists are.
Brian Williams: Is an abortion clinic bomber a terrorist under this definition?
Sarah Palin: [Sighs] There’s no question Bill Ayers, via his own admittance, was, um, one who sought to destroy, er, our US Capitol and our Pentagon. That is a domestic terrorist. Ah, there’s no question there. Now, others who would want to engage in harming innocent Americans or um, facilities, that, uh, that would be unacceptable. Uh, I don’t know if you’re going to use the word “terrorist” there, but it’s unacceptable and, uh, it, er, would not be condoned, of course, on, on our watch, but I don’t know what you’re asking is if I regret referring to Bill Ayers as an unrepentant domestic terrorist. I don’t regret characterizing him as that.
Brian Williams: I’m just asking what other categories you would put in there. Abortion clinic bombers, protesters in cities where fires were started, Molotov cocktails were thrown, people died.
Sarah Palin: I would put in that category of Bill Ayers anyone else who would seek to campaign to destroy our United States Capitol and our Pentagon and would seek to destroy innocent Americans.
You see, it’s not terrorism when you bomb abortion clinics with their evil doctors, staff, and patients. Come to think of it, those kinds of people are not even REAL Americans, let alone innocent Americans.
It may be unacceptable and not condoned, but easily forgiven and pardoned if the bomber is a real American.... Like say, Joe the plumber. We can’t use the word “terrorist” for those who believe that bombing is a form of oh, say, religious expression. Those fundamentalist types are part of what is called “the base”. They are the common folk who always fall in line behind the wedge issues to vote republican. Sarah was brought into the campaign to appeal to the base.
How can we call someone who thinks God wants them to punish the wicked enemies of their religion a terrorist? Sarah can clearly judge such distinctions.
It’s not like they’re crazed Muslim fundamentalists who think Allah wants them to kill infidels. Now those nuts are clearly terrorists. They even label their radical group with the sinister name of al-Qaeda. That would be the Arabic word for “the base”.
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