Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul, darling of the TEA PARTY, had more embarassing questions to answer about his alleged college prank involving the kidnapping of a female swim team colleague, making her bow down at a creek to worship the AQUA BUDDHA while high on pot -- they were, she refused to take bong hits at their apartment.
Following is a recreation of the AQUA BUDDHA worship mantra as Randie and his NoZe brother tried to take their kidnapped female subject to a higher level of consciousness:
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Adventures in TEA PARTY Campaigns: Rand Paul’s Sane and Lucid College Daze
He’s a wild and crazy guy now:
He wouldn’t have voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because he thinks business owners should discriminate against patrons on the basis of race. Tell that to a black family driving through the heart of Dixie who can’t find a restroom to relieve their bladders, (Ayn) Rand. Following the West Virginia and Kentucky mine tragedies, Paul would oppose regulating the mines. He also said mountaintop removal isn’t too bad: “Most people would say the land is of enhanced value.”
More rapid-fire looniness from Rand Paul, the wingnut: He claims smoking in restaurants is a “God-given liberty;” shunned MTP to go on a 9/11-conspiracy show, Russia Today; he came out in favor of repealing the 14th Amendment; said President Obama was “un-American” for criticizing BP; and so on.
Back in college, though, Rand Paul almost straddled the line of normalcy. In this endearing article by GQ, we learn that while a student at Baylor (he dropped out) Randy (as he was known then) belonged to a “secret society” called the NoZe Brotherhood. According to a Baylor president, NoZe brothers practiced “lewd, crude, and grossly sacrilegious” activities. The Brotherhood was suspended from campus and anyone discovered to be a NoZe brother was automatically expelled. One of Paul’s former brothers said they liked tweaking the school’s religiosity and “aspired to blasphemy.” (Now there’s something Sister Sarah and Sharron Commandment can get behind.) Cool!
But then Randy got into some extra weird stuff like, oh … alleged kidnapping:
Here is exclusive video of Rand Paul and NoZe sidekick listening to their favorite Rush tune, “The Spirit of Radio”... getting in the spirit. No? But the link came from Breitbart.
Rush, a great progressive Canadian rock trio, is furious and demanded that the Paul campaign stop playing its songs.
He wouldn’t have voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because he thinks business owners should discriminate against patrons on the basis of race. Tell that to a black family driving through the heart of Dixie who can’t find a restroom to relieve their bladders, (Ayn) Rand. Following the West Virginia and Kentucky mine tragedies, Paul would oppose regulating the mines. He also said mountaintop removal isn’t too bad: “Most people would say the land is of enhanced value.”
More rapid-fire looniness from Rand Paul, the wingnut: He claims smoking in restaurants is a “God-given liberty;” shunned MTP to go on a 9/11-conspiracy show, Russia Today; he came out in favor of repealing the 14th Amendment; said President Obama was “un-American” for criticizing BP; and so on.Back in college, though, Rand Paul almost straddled the line of normalcy. In this endearing article by GQ, we learn that while a student at Baylor (he dropped out) Randy (as he was known then) belonged to a “secret society” called the NoZe Brotherhood. According to a Baylor president, NoZe brothers practiced “lewd, crude, and grossly sacrilegious” activities. The Brotherhood was suspended from campus and anyone discovered to be a NoZe brother was automatically expelled. One of Paul’s former brothers said they liked tweaking the school’s religiosity and “aspired to blasphemy.” (Now there’s something Sister Sarah and Sharron Commandment can get behind.) Cool!
But then Randy got into some extra weird stuff like, oh … alleged kidnapping:“The strangest episode of Paul's time at Baylor occurred one afternoon in 1983 (although memories about all of these events are understandably a bit hazy, so the date might be slightly off), when he and a NoZe brother paid a visit to a female student who was one of Paul's teammates on the Baylor swim team. According to this woman, who requested anonymity because of her current job as a clinical psychologist, “He and Randy came to my house, they knocked on my door, and then they blindfolded me, tied me up, and put me in their car. They took me to their apartment and tried to force me to take bong hits. They'd been smoking pot.” After the woman refused to smoke with them, Paul and his friend put her back in their car and drove to the countryside outside of Waco, where they stopped near a creek. “They told me their god was 'Aqua Buddha' and that I needed to bow down and worship him,” the woman recalls. “They blindfolded me and made me bow down to 'Aqua Buddha' in the creek. I had to say, 'I worship you Aqua Buddha, I worship you.' At Baylor, there were people actively going around trying to save you and we had to go to chapel, so worshiping idols was a big no-no.”Interestingly, the Paul campaign never denied the episode until the next day. Were they trying to get all their ducks in a row with frantic calls to NoZe brothers -- the old “her word against ours” defense? “Randy” was still vague about his alleged excellent kidnapping/bong adventure: “Well, I'm not really going to try to go back 27 years and remember everything I did in college…. I don’t think that really politicians should be asked to answer anonymous accusers from 27 years ago,” Paul said. “But I will categorically deny that I ever kidnapped anyone or forced anybody to use drugs.”
Nearly 30 years later, the woman is still trying to make sense of that afternoon. “They never hurt me, they never did anything wrong, but the whole thing was kind of sadistic. They were messing with my mind. It was some kind of joke.” She hadn't actually realized that Paul wound up leaving Baylor early. “I just know I never saw Randy after that—for understandable reasons, I think.”
When I asked [Paul’s campaign manager Jesse] Benton late last week if Paul remembered any of these episodes from his Baylor days, he replied in an email: ‘During his time at Baylor, Dr. Paul competed on the swim team and was an active member of Young Conservatives of Texas.’”
Here is exclusive video of Rand Paul and NoZe sidekick listening to their favorite Rush tune, “The Spirit of Radio”... getting in the spirit. No? But the link came from Breitbart.
Rush, a great progressive Canadian rock trio, is furious and demanded that the Paul campaign stop playing its songs.
TEA PARTY Continues To Create Havoc ... YAY!
In Colorado, Ken Buck formed the third leg of the terrible three -- Rand Paul in Kentucky and Sharron Angle in Nevada, the first two -- as the Tea Party Axis of Evil angles to terrorize the nation and wreack havoc with the political establishment. In a sense, one can say that the Tea Party is getting some wins as a counterinsurgent, counter-revolutionary movement in sliming the millions of voters for change who turned out to elect our first African American president, simply by occupying a vaccuum (90% of life is showing up, as they say). With the administration failing to deliver the change people voted for, the forces of reaction, well funded by corporate money, stepped into the breach like modern-day brown shirts brandishing copies of the Constitution eight years too late, as Gibby bitched about the “professional Left” (“I’m not sure I should take offense at that,” quipped Michael Moore) and the punditocracy elites bemoaned the Left’s impatience with incremental steps (Jon Alter) that look like a sellout to Republicans and corporate interests from where we stand.
And Gibby, it’s not that the President is like George W. Bush. It’s that he’s too much like Adlai Stevenson, the wonkish professorial liberal who twice carried the Democratic banner in the 50s against Dwight Eisenhower -- and lost. The Kennedys mocked him for not being tough enough. In the last century, there were only two Democratic agents of change -- real change: FDR and RFK. President Obama is like neither, although Jonathan Alter may disagree. It’s inconceivable to progressives that Bobby Kennedy would have caved to Republicans and corporate interests as often as President Obama has. Bobby would never have given up on the public option -- ever. And he would have called the Republicans on the carpet for obstructionism and the teabaggers for racism without hesitation or prevarication. Progressives are pulling for President Obama, waiting for more of that Trumanesque fire on the stump, railing (rightly) against a “do-nothing Congress.” We’ve given up on anything approaching FDR or RFK proportions -- which is a shame.
Meanwhile, “numbers guy” Chuck Todd was making silly predictions (if Obama’s candidate loses -- he didn’t ... then, “ekes out a win” -- he didn’t ... in what planet is 54-45% a squeaker? Only in the jaded world of the A-holes at POLITICO) to gin up MSNBC’s ratings with mischief-making. The low-down on the “authoritative” Chuck Todd is whatever he predicts, take the opposite view and you’ll be closer to reality. Todd was last seen mangling an interview with a Republican supply-sider in which he bought the “historical” fantasy that deficits do not grow under Republicans as a result of tax cuts for HIS tax bracket, and that such tax cuts would produce significant jobs and economic activity. Mr. Todd needs serious schooling in economics from Nobel laureate Paul Krugman and Robert Reich. It’s not hard; all he has to do is read Krugman’s analysis of the economic disaster that began with Reagan’s tax cuts for the rich and subsequent exploding deficits. Then, he might mention that Bill Clinton, a Democratic president, raised taxes on the rich, created 22 million jobs, and left GWB a surplus.
Speaking of 2012, Todd joked with a Democratic analyst, I take it you'll have “no horse in this race” (of course not, since the President is surely running for re-election). But it does point to an obnoxious pattern in Todd’s mischief-making M.O., which is to hope for maximum political disruption, and almost wistfully, for a Republican tsunami, because it’s good for his business and bottom line. And for his tax bracket, too. But, in fairness, he’s not any different from the vast majority of the useless punditocracy (with a few notable examples).
If anyone wants to know who’s in it for the right reasons, check out journolist. End of rant.
And Gibby, it’s not that the President is like George W. Bush. It’s that he’s too much like Adlai Stevenson, the wonkish professorial liberal who twice carried the Democratic banner in the 50s against Dwight Eisenhower -- and lost. The Kennedys mocked him for not being tough enough. In the last century, there were only two Democratic agents of change -- real change: FDR and RFK. President Obama is like neither, although Jonathan Alter may disagree. It’s inconceivable to progressives that Bobby Kennedy would have caved to Republicans and corporate interests as often as President Obama has. Bobby would never have given up on the public option -- ever. And he would have called the Republicans on the carpet for obstructionism and the teabaggers for racism without hesitation or prevarication. Progressives are pulling for President Obama, waiting for more of that Trumanesque fire on the stump, railing (rightly) against a “do-nothing Congress.” We’ve given up on anything approaching FDR or RFK proportions -- which is a shame.Meanwhile, “numbers guy” Chuck Todd was making silly predictions (if Obama’s candidate loses -- he didn’t ... then, “ekes out a win” -- he didn’t ... in what planet is 54-45% a squeaker? Only in the jaded world of the A-holes at POLITICO) to gin up MSNBC’s ratings with mischief-making. The low-down on the “authoritative” Chuck Todd is whatever he predicts, take the opposite view and you’ll be closer to reality. Todd was last seen mangling an interview with a Republican supply-sider in which he bought the “historical” fantasy that deficits do not grow under Republicans as a result of tax cuts for HIS tax bracket, and that such tax cuts would produce significant jobs and economic activity. Mr. Todd needs serious schooling in economics from Nobel laureate Paul Krugman and Robert Reich. It’s not hard; all he has to do is read Krugman’s analysis of the economic disaster that began with Reagan’s tax cuts for the rich and subsequent exploding deficits. Then, he might mention that Bill Clinton, a Democratic president, raised taxes on the rich, created 22 million jobs, and left GWB a surplus.
Speaking of 2012, Todd joked with a Democratic analyst, I take it you'll have “no horse in this race” (of course not, since the President is surely running for re-election). But it does point to an obnoxious pattern in Todd’s mischief-making M.O., which is to hope for maximum political disruption, and almost wistfully, for a Republican tsunami, because it’s good for his business and bottom line. And for his tax bracket, too. But, in fairness, he’s not any different from the vast majority of the useless punditocracy (with a few notable examples).
If anyone wants to know who’s in it for the right reasons, check out journolist. End of rant.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
AWWW … “One Day, Son, You’ll Be the Lion King”
This is too CUTE to pass up: Lion and his baby cub survey same terrain that inspired Disney’s “The Lion King.”
“Standing tall this proud lion leads his cub over their home terrain. His mane streaming back in the breeze, the father looks over his tiny cub as they stand on a barren rock in Tanzania. The little cub -- just old enough to walk -- took his first steps following his father on the Serengeti plains.”
Adventures in TEA PARTY Campaigns: Sharron Angle's COMMANDMENT Unto the Rest of Us
Thou shalt not worship a false God, the god of government, so said Sharron Angle: “And these programs that you mentioned -- that Obama has going with Reid and Pelosi pushing them forward -- are all entitlement programs built to make government our God. And that’s really what’s happening in this country is a violation of the First Commandment. We have become a country entrenched in idolatry, and that idolatry is the dependency upon our government. We’re supposed to depend upon God for our protection and our provision and for our daily bread, not for our government.”
According to “Tea Party” orthodoxy, government is our enemy, tyrannical, with those evil entitlement programs –- Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid -- the teabaggeers rely on. The “Tea Party” doctrine says, do away with government, even if it means large classroom sizes, laying off teachers, firefighters, and police, unpaving our roads, turning off our lights, allowing the interstate highway system to go to rot, defunding the Department of Education, the EPA (who needs safe drinking water and unpolluted air and streams –- let the corporations decide what are necessary safety regulations (for their bottom line) –- what’s a few worker deaths and higher cancer rates to thin out the herd of liberals, not to speak of the uninsured, in the bigger scheme of things…?), and last but not least, garbage disposal.
For Sharron Angle this would mean shutting her up, which is an infringement on her “god-given” First Amendment right to make a fool of herself. After all, in the teabaggers’ revisionist, Texas textbook history, Jefferson never said there was “a wall of separation” between church and state.
One could mention most of the other Commandments, too:
Thou shalt not kill, except in the prosecution of unnecessary wars in which the innocent dead are “collateral damage;”
Thou shalt not commit adultery, except that Sharron’s prospective caucus colleagues John Ensign and David (diaper boy) Vitter in the “family values” party didn’t get the memo from on high;
Thou shalt not steal, and teabaggers opposing stricter regulation of lobbyists and corporate contributions really moves the ball forward on this Commandment;
Thou shalt not bear false witness … hmm, where to begin, teabaggers collecting Social Security -- ON MY DIME -– calling the president a socialist, or Sharron Angle LYING about her extremism;
Covet thy neighbor’s house, or Senate seat -– why is Angle running to be part of a tyrannical government? – Is it her Christ complex and missionary zeal to cast out of the Temple all those who “sold and bought” in it … psst Sharron, best to start with your own party and vote straight line Democratic;
... wife (covered), nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass (hmm … covered (?)).
Sharron Angle and her extreme religious fundamentalism is the reason the Founding Fathers fought so hard to separate religion and state. As Thomas Jefferson wrote in his Autobiography, in reference to the Virginia Act for Religious Freedom:
According to “Tea Party” orthodoxy, government is our enemy, tyrannical, with those evil entitlement programs –- Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid -- the teabaggeers rely on. The “Tea Party” doctrine says, do away with government, even if it means large classroom sizes, laying off teachers, firefighters, and police, unpaving our roads, turning off our lights, allowing the interstate highway system to go to rot, defunding the Department of Education, the EPA (who needs safe drinking water and unpolluted air and streams –- let the corporations decide what are necessary safety regulations (for their bottom line) –- what’s a few worker deaths and higher cancer rates to thin out the herd of liberals, not to speak of the uninsured, in the bigger scheme of things…?), and last but not least, garbage disposal.
For Sharron Angle this would mean shutting her up, which is an infringement on her “god-given” First Amendment right to make a fool of herself. After all, in the teabaggers’ revisionist, Texas textbook history, Jefferson never said there was “a wall of separation” between church and state.
One could mention most of the other Commandments, too:Thou shalt not kill, except in the prosecution of unnecessary wars in which the innocent dead are “collateral damage;”
Thou shalt not commit adultery, except that Sharron’s prospective caucus colleagues John Ensign and David (diaper boy) Vitter in the “family values” party didn’t get the memo from on high;
Thou shalt not steal, and teabaggers opposing stricter regulation of lobbyists and corporate contributions really moves the ball forward on this Commandment;
Thou shalt not bear false witness … hmm, where to begin, teabaggers collecting Social Security -- ON MY DIME -– calling the president a socialist, or Sharron Angle LYING about her extremism;
Covet thy neighbor’s house, or Senate seat -– why is Angle running to be part of a tyrannical government? – Is it her Christ complex and missionary zeal to cast out of the Temple all those who “sold and bought” in it … psst Sharron, best to start with your own party and vote straight line Democratic;
... wife (covered), nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass (hmm … covered (?)).
Sharron Angle and her extreme religious fundamentalism is the reason the Founding Fathers fought so hard to separate religion and state. As Thomas Jefferson wrote in his Autobiography, in reference to the Virginia Act for Religious Freedom:
“Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed by inserting ‘Jesus Christ,’ so that it would read ‘A departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion;’ the insertion was rejected by the great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mohammedan, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination.”
Monday, August 09, 2010
Beck's Latest Racist Rant Scrubbed by Fox
I have a question for Glenn Beck fans. I’d really like to know how you can justify his latest racist rant:
Planet of The Apes? How can you justify this and continue patronizing this paranoid lunatic, this untrammeled racist? I honestly don’t get it. Beck may call the AFL-CIO and unions “special interests” because they represent millions of workers, contribute to political campaigns, and lobby Congress. But unions are much more than that. They represent and protect working people from abusive employers, negotiate contracts, monitor safe working conditions, and fight tooth-and-nail to keep jobs in America.
Some special interest. Setting aside the despicable racism, this is an ironic (and predictably stupid) line of attack from Beck, given that President Obama’s camp had named unions “special interests” during the 2008 primary campaign -- a real no-no for a Democrat. Had Beck done his homework, he could have properly criticized the President for hypocrisy without the incendiary language, and worse, plunging headlong into the racism gutter.
Even Fox News recognized the racist nature of Beck’s statement and scrubbed the language from its website; it’s amusing how they haven’t caught on to YouTube. This is the second time in so many weeks YouTube’s burned Fox News. Fox’s posture is not to acknowledge the truth of Beck’s racism. Rather, Fox wants to limit the number of eyes that can actually read it, by scrubbing the original language and substituting it with something innocuous and false (because it’s not what Beck said).
Goebbels and the Nazis were pretty good at such deception, but this can’t be mentioned in polite society because it’s supposed to be over the top, even if it’s a spot-on target critique. So much for political correctness on the LEFT giving the RIGHT cover to be outrageous racists and Nazi re-enactors. Progressives should stop behaving like ninnies and call a spade a spade. The right wing is populated with fascists imbued with the rhetoric of fascism, and proto-Nazi eruptions in symbiotic “Tea Party” fringe supporters. Just pick up a book and read about the weak Weimar Republic and the rise of the Nazi Party. The historical comparisons between our current political climate and Weimar Germany are trenchant.
The truth is, Glenn Beck lacks the character and intelligence to make cogent critiques that will actually advance our political conversation. So, to those who continue to watch Glenn Beck’s racist, paranoid rants uncritically (because an ounce of skepticism and a sense of fairness would keep you away): Shame on you.
Planet of The Apes? How can you justify this and continue patronizing this paranoid lunatic, this untrammeled racist? I honestly don’t get it. Beck may call the AFL-CIO and unions “special interests” because they represent millions of workers, contribute to political campaigns, and lobby Congress. But unions are much more than that. They represent and protect working people from abusive employers, negotiate contracts, monitor safe working conditions, and fight tooth-and-nail to keep jobs in America.
Some special interest. Setting aside the despicable racism, this is an ironic (and predictably stupid) line of attack from Beck, given that President Obama’s camp had named unions “special interests” during the 2008 primary campaign -- a real no-no for a Democrat. Had Beck done his homework, he could have properly criticized the President for hypocrisy without the incendiary language, and worse, plunging headlong into the racism gutter.
Even Fox News recognized the racist nature of Beck’s statement and scrubbed the language from its website; it’s amusing how they haven’t caught on to YouTube. This is the second time in so many weeks YouTube’s burned Fox News. Fox’s posture is not to acknowledge the truth of Beck’s racism. Rather, Fox wants to limit the number of eyes that can actually read it, by scrubbing the original language and substituting it with something innocuous and false (because it’s not what Beck said).
Goebbels and the Nazis were pretty good at such deception, but this can’t be mentioned in polite society because it’s supposed to be over the top, even if it’s a spot-on target critique. So much for political correctness on the LEFT giving the RIGHT cover to be outrageous racists and Nazi re-enactors. Progressives should stop behaving like ninnies and call a spade a spade. The right wing is populated with fascists imbued with the rhetoric of fascism, and proto-Nazi eruptions in symbiotic “Tea Party” fringe supporters. Just pick up a book and read about the weak Weimar Republic and the rise of the Nazi Party. The historical comparisons between our current political climate and Weimar Germany are trenchant.
The truth is, Glenn Beck lacks the character and intelligence to make cogent critiques that will actually advance our political conversation. So, to those who continue to watch Glenn Beck’s racist, paranoid rants uncritically (because an ounce of skepticism and a sense of fairness would keep you away): Shame on you.
Friday, August 06, 2010
Great Scott! NOT ...
Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts is a lightweight and a jerk. The former COSMO playmate played a role that no doubt comes naturally, that of escort, to “uphold a long-standing tradition by introducing Elena Kagan of Massachusetts to the [Judiciary] Committee.” The moussed-hair Senator –- a style favored by that other ladies man, John Ensign -- made full use of his face-time on national TV. Scottie rambled that it was an “honor” to introduce a nominee with such an “impressive legal resume.” He was “very proud that our nation’s first female Solicitor General has such deep roots in Massachusetts,” adding “If confirmed, Ms. Kagan would be the third woman on the Supreme Court and only the fourth in the history of the court.”
Quite an endorsement. Except when it came time to confirm Elena Kagan, Scott Brown voted NO. (Kagan’s confirmation was never imperiled and moved quickly through the Senate, as these things go, so Brown’s vote other than a courtesy to Ms. Kagan was meaningless. After all, it was Ms. Kagan who gave him the opportunity to get his face out there.)
Brown’s lame reason: Elena Kagan lacks courtroom experience. As Rachel Maddow likes to say, “bullpuckey!” (Ed: shit, for the uninitiated.) Here’s Media Matters:
But that’s the least of it. To top things off, the guy has some kind of problem with women. First, he did a truly snarky, underhanded thing to Rachel Maddow, using her name in a fundraising pitch by fueling the outlandish rumor the Massachusetts Democratic Party had approached her to challenge him for the Senate. Then, after saying “I’m sure she’s a nice person” (Kagan is “pleasant”) Brown proceeded to trash his fictitious opponent, calling her a “rubberstamp” of Democratic Party bosses in Massachusetts with a “a nightly platform to push her far-left agenda.” Raising the specter of Maddow, Brown made his pitch for citizens to join “in rallies and petitions that challenge President Obama and Nancy Pelosi’s healthcare legislation, supporting campaigns against the tax-and-spenders or by donating time and money” TO ME. Rachel tried in vain to get him to stop sliming her.
That’s three prominent women –- Maddow, Pelosi, and Kagan -– Scott Brown has trashed gratuitously since sauntering about the Senate halls with his bow legs like a modern-day Stan Laurel, yucking it up about his SNL skit, in which he was portrayed (realistically) as a mysoginistic dud/stud.
SCOTT BROWN = FAIL!
Quite an endorsement. Except when it came time to confirm Elena Kagan, Scott Brown voted NO. (Kagan’s confirmation was never imperiled and moved quickly through the Senate, as these things go, so Brown’s vote other than a courtesy to Ms. Kagan was meaningless. After all, it was Ms. Kagan who gave him the opportunity to get his face out there.)Brown’s lame reason: Elena Kagan lacks courtroom experience. As Rachel Maddow likes to say, “bullpuckey!” (Ed: shit, for the uninitiated.) Here’s Media Matters:
“Media figures have advanced the myth that judicial experience is a pre-requisite for a Supreme Court justice. In fact, two of the last four previous chief justices -- William Rehnquist and Earl Warren -- had no judicial experience when first nominated to the Court by Republican presidents. Neither did other famous justices, including Felix Frankfurter, Louis Brandeis, and John Marshall, known as the "Great Chief Justice.”Scott Brown came to the Senate unprepared, with little grasp of the issues, a total 360 compared to his predecessor. He gets his cues from corporate lobbyists and contributors as to what stands to take. Brown underwhelmed observers with lazy work habits, inarticulate comments and a shallow, narcissistic public posture. In short, the guy’s an idiot, a happenstance who landed through Democratic incompetence and complacency on the vacated seat of the late, lamented Lion of the Senate, Ted Kennedy. Hopefully if not Ed Markey then Ted Kennedy Jr. will take back the seat for the Democrats from this arriviste.
But that’s the least of it. To top things off, the guy has some kind of problem with women. First, he did a truly snarky, underhanded thing to Rachel Maddow, using her name in a fundraising pitch by fueling the outlandish rumor the Massachusetts Democratic Party had approached her to challenge him for the Senate. Then, after saying “I’m sure she’s a nice person” (Kagan is “pleasant”) Brown proceeded to trash his fictitious opponent, calling her a “rubberstamp” of Democratic Party bosses in Massachusetts with a “a nightly platform to push her far-left agenda.” Raising the specter of Maddow, Brown made his pitch for citizens to join “in rallies and petitions that challenge President Obama and Nancy Pelosi’s healthcare legislation, supporting campaigns against the tax-and-spenders or by donating time and money” TO ME. Rachel tried in vain to get him to stop sliming her.
That’s three prominent women –- Maddow, Pelosi, and Kagan -– Scott Brown has trashed gratuitously since sauntering about the Senate halls with his bow legs like a modern-day Stan Laurel, yucking it up about his SNL skit, in which he was portrayed (realistically) as a mysoginistic dud/stud.
SCOTT BROWN = FAIL!
LIE TO ME, GO AHEAD REPUBLICANS, LIE TO ME
The Republicans are shameless, despicable, and un-American. They just keep throwing outrageous numbers around about the economic impact on the top 2% of American earners of letting the Bush tax cuts for them expire, hoping some of it will stick. Mitch McConnell said it’s 50% of small businesses. Paul Ryan, the “objectivist” Ayn Rand cult worshipper who keeps stacks of Atlas Shrugged in his office for staffers (required reading) and select visitors, claims it’s 75%. Lies, all LIES.
Only 2.5% of people declaring small business income (24% of all filers) would pay higher tax rates if the Bush tax cuts expire. TWO-POINT-FIVE PERCENT. Capisce?
It’s amazing to watch old white people standing around Mitch McConnell, millionaires many times over, as he LIES on their behalf. John Kyl, an utterly detestable human being and a political expediency racist right along with John McCain, has that arrogant, lopsided grin of the plutocrat’s agent putting one over on the electorate who don’t march in lockstep and refuse to bow before the ruling oligarchs. Lamar Alexander has a stupid smirk on his face of one who’s playing an 800-plus billion deficit-exploding practical joke on the American people -– and cannot hide that he knows it. And Lisa Murkowski has that perpetually haunted, deer-in-the-headlights look, like she’s one step ahead of the law and about to be cuffed and Mirandized at any moment for violating her sacred constitutional trust to the American people.
And worse, they are incredibly irresponsible and selfish, as if intent on destroying this country for succeeding generations by, in their words, “starving the beast” of big government, no matter how much destruction of people’s lives it causes along the way. These Republicans care more about transnational corporations than they do about 20 million unemployed Americans. By borrowing money from the Chinese to line their pockets and seed their Swiss bank accounts with more and more millionaire tax cuts, they have effectively ceded our national sovereignty to the Chinese. There is a word for such people: traitors.
Only 2.5% of people declaring small business income (24% of all filers) would pay higher tax rates if the Bush tax cuts expire. TWO-POINT-FIVE PERCENT. Capisce?
It’s amazing to watch old white people standing around Mitch McConnell, millionaires many times over, as he LIES on their behalf. John Kyl, an utterly detestable human being and a political expediency racist right along with John McCain, has that arrogant, lopsided grin of the plutocrat’s agent putting one over on the electorate who don’t march in lockstep and refuse to bow before the ruling oligarchs. Lamar Alexander has a stupid smirk on his face of one who’s playing an 800-plus billion deficit-exploding practical joke on the American people -– and cannot hide that he knows it. And Lisa Murkowski has that perpetually haunted, deer-in-the-headlights look, like she’s one step ahead of the law and about to be cuffed and Mirandized at any moment for violating her sacred constitutional trust to the American people.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
And worse, they are incredibly irresponsible and selfish, as if intent on destroying this country for succeeding generations by, in their words, “starving the beast” of big government, no matter how much destruction of people’s lives it causes along the way. These Republicans care more about transnational corporations than they do about 20 million unemployed Americans. By borrowing money from the Chinese to line their pockets and seed their Swiss bank accounts with more and more millionaire tax cuts, they have effectively ceded our national sovereignty to the Chinese. There is a word for such people: traitors.
Thursday, August 05, 2010
What’s the Matter With the TEA PARTY?
For starters, tossing overboard good public servants like Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC) and Senator Bob Bennett of Utah. Their sin? Not being conservative (to use an inadequate Tea parlor term) enough, and refusing to lie and pander to the extremist elements to the right of the Republican Party (which is as fringe as fringe can be). Inglis happens to be a fairly normal, mainstream, honest conservative. The type of lawmaker who could disagree with his adversaries without being disagreeable, who knows how to build bridges across the aisle, and gets things done for his constituents.
So what do they do? They toss him. At least those extremists who often hold sway in Republican primaries, because Mr. Inglis would most likely win easy reelection in the general. And why did they toss him? Well, he called on Joe Wilson to apologize for yelling “You lie!” then told people to stop watching Glenn Beck: “They say, 'Bob, what don't you get? Barack Obama is a socialist, communist Marxist who wants to destroy the American economy so he can take over as dictator. Health care is part of that. And he wants to open up the Mexican border and turn [the US] into a Muslim nation.’”
What would you do in Mr. Inglis’s place, listening to such ignorant tirades? I’d tell these Teabagger jackasses to stop watching Beck, too, read some history suggested by reputable sources such as the Smithsonian or any number of universities … then if they have health insurance, or are recipients of hugely popular socialist government programs Medicare and Social Security, to consult a psychiatrist. (But I’m not running for anything.) Mr. Inglis clammed up. But he also refused to describe the President as a socialist. “It's a dangerous strategy to build conservatism on information and policies that are not credible...This guy is no socialist.”
He REFUSED TO LIE because he is a man of integrity. Are there Republicans of integrity? Not so many in office. Or, like Bob Inglis and Bob Bennett, they’re being excised from government by the extremist elements that control their party. Most Republicans pander shamelessly to the extremists. Those who take up the Tea Party banner and run with it are being defeated. Most voters, even Republicans, aren’t stupid. They’re slow on the uptake, many are fooled by the propaganda, but many take the time to scratch below the surface platitudes. And the more they look, the less they like. They may be for smaller government conceptually, and for tackling deficits, but they’re not for privatizing Social Security, defunding Medicare, or abolishing the EPA and the Department of Education, among many issues. And most Americans are decent people who abhor racism.
The extremism on the right that has defined the Tea Party movement is not where the American people are. Recent election results demonstrate this, as the Tea Party candidates have been shellacked by the voters –- Republican voters. It’s too bad they weren’t around or didn’t turn out to give Bob Inglis a vote of confidence. Democrats and progressives may not agree on a single issue with Mr. Inglis. But no one can ever question his honesty and integrity.
Each time ideology –- a sick and ignorant one at that –- trumps honesty and integrity in politics, we are diminished, no matter what side of the fence we happen to be on. This is why turnout and voting are so important. The lunatics may rule the asylum, but they can only take over town hall if we stay home and let them.
So what do they do? They toss him. At least those extremists who often hold sway in Republican primaries, because Mr. Inglis would most likely win easy reelection in the general. And why did they toss him? Well, he called on Joe Wilson to apologize for yelling “You lie!” then told people to stop watching Glenn Beck: “They say, 'Bob, what don't you get? Barack Obama is a socialist, communist Marxist who wants to destroy the American economy so he can take over as dictator. Health care is part of that. And he wants to open up the Mexican border and turn [the US] into a Muslim nation.’”
What would you do in Mr. Inglis’s place, listening to such ignorant tirades? I’d tell these Teabagger jackasses to stop watching Beck, too, read some history suggested by reputable sources such as the Smithsonian or any number of universities … then if they have health insurance, or are recipients of hugely popular socialist government programs Medicare and Social Security, to consult a psychiatrist. (But I’m not running for anything.) Mr. Inglis clammed up. But he also refused to describe the President as a socialist. “It's a dangerous strategy to build conservatism on information and policies that are not credible...This guy is no socialist.”
He REFUSED TO LIE because he is a man of integrity. Are there Republicans of integrity? Not so many in office. Or, like Bob Inglis and Bob Bennett, they’re being excised from government by the extremist elements that control their party. Most Republicans pander shamelessly to the extremists. Those who take up the Tea Party banner and run with it are being defeated. Most voters, even Republicans, aren’t stupid. They’re slow on the uptake, many are fooled by the propaganda, but many take the time to scratch below the surface platitudes. And the more they look, the less they like. They may be for smaller government conceptually, and for tackling deficits, but they’re not for privatizing Social Security, defunding Medicare, or abolishing the EPA and the Department of Education, among many issues. And most Americans are decent people who abhor racism.
The extremism on the right that has defined the Tea Party movement is not where the American people are. Recent election results demonstrate this, as the Tea Party candidates have been shellacked by the voters –- Republican voters. It’s too bad they weren’t around or didn’t turn out to give Bob Inglis a vote of confidence. Democrats and progressives may not agree on a single issue with Mr. Inglis. But no one can ever question his honesty and integrity.
Each time ideology –- a sick and ignorant one at that –- trumps honesty and integrity in politics, we are diminished, no matter what side of the fence we happen to be on. This is why turnout and voting are so important. The lunatics may rule the asylum, but they can only take over town hall if we stay home and let them.
Adventures in TEA PARTY Campaigns: The Great International BICYCLE CONSPIRACY!
Jeez … Ain’t nothing sacred! Now the Teabaggers have dragged America’s cyclists, minding their own business, pedaling along the nation’s bike trails, into a SINISTER UN SOCIALIST CONSPIRACY. KO Explains:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Adventures in TEA PARTY Campaigns: TEA PARTY Books Next “Uni-TEA” Venue
When free water bottles on ice go untouched in mid-Summer, Oh Tea Party, YA GOTCHA problem … Latest word on the crowd count was 300 – yep, 300 … And they weren’t dressed as Spartans, either … I don’t think Leonidas had a beer belly.Wednesday, August 04, 2010
Happy 49th Birthday, Mr. President
For once the Republicans were good-natured with vestigial signs of humor as they pulled back their claws for one day. Here’s my favorite mock Republican birthday card for our President:
Sadly, most political attacks on our President the other 364 days of the year are vicious racist datribes that question his patriotism, manhood, and birthright.
I added my heartfelt birthday wishes for our President:
All Americans want President Obama to succeed, don’t they?
Sadly, most political attacks on our President the other 364 days of the year are vicious racist datribes that question his patriotism, manhood, and birthright.
I added my heartfelt birthday wishes for our President:
All Americans want President Obama to succeed, don’t they?
This Just In: Same Sex Marriage Ban (Prop 8) in California Overturned
This is good news for common sense, decency, and basic human rights, the pursuit of happiness, and a blow to bigots and religious fundamentalists everywhere. This fight -- things we should not even be arguing about -- is never over, but it is one more small step on the path toward a more tolerant and just society. As with racism, the young people demographics are genuinely puzzled, if not baffled, by such social kerfuffles. More and more, bigotry of all kinds seems to be an older population disease. Another notable fact, is that the distinguished lawyers arguing for overturning the gay marriage ban -- liberal David Boies and conservative Ted Olson -- were once adversaries in Bush v. Gore.
Palin’s Wailin’ Wassila Wall
Not all is guns ‘n roses in the Sarah Palin online shrine known as her Facebook page. As SNL’s fake Rahm Emanuel said:
Indeed, the censored (recovered) comments on Palin’s Facebook wall present a picture closer to the fake Emanuel’s threat of making it a Palin Wailin’ Wassila Wall than the carefully choreographed and screened vehicle designed to massage her image with the public while bypassing that pesky “lamestream media.” What do commenters really think of Sister Sarah? Here’s a look behind the curtain of her Facebook wall. Not so saintly Sister Sarah.
“You come after me on facebook? What, are your fourteen? Here's a status update: Grow the fuck up! Poke me again, and I will write shit on your wall so obsene your computer will cry. Go back to the tundra, you fucking gimmick!”
Indeed, the censored (recovered) comments on Palin’s Facebook wall present a picture closer to the fake Emanuel’s threat of making it a Palin Wailin’ Wassila Wall than the carefully choreographed and screened vehicle designed to massage her image with the public while bypassing that pesky “lamestream media.” What do commenters really think of Sister Sarah? Here’s a look behind the curtain of her Facebook wall. Not so saintly Sister Sarah.
They're Really Scraping the Bottom of the Barrel ...
… Trying to find evidence of that elusive vast left wing media conspiracy. I’m no big fan of Katie Couric (I stopped watching after she brought Rush Limbaugh on as a commentator), but this vapid attack on Couric by right wing blogger Jim Treacher is quite hilarious:
Parenthetically, it’s interesting to watch the right wing’s vain and pathetic attempts to reach for some kind of equivalency. First it was the NAACP resolution calling on the Tea Party to drop its racist elements, answered by Andrew Breitbart’s smear of a USDA official with false allegations of racism. Now Treacher digs up a 2008 Couric outtake so insipid even he has to admit it is “pretty mild.” And Jim, as to your familiar victim whine –- “these guardians of the truth” who “consider most of us unworthy of anything but casual contempt” –- after reading the contemptible comments on the YouTube clip you posted, would you care to revise your remark?
“It’s interesting to watch Katie Couric drop her pretense of impartiality… Because it only serves to remind us of this:
| Published: 8:50 AM 08/04/2010 | Updated: 9:00 AM 08/04/2010
August 29, 2008:
Pretty mild, compared to some of the stuff that’s been said about Sarah Palin and her kids. But, as with JournoList, it’s nice to have solid confirmation of what we’ve long suspected. These gatekeepers, these guardians of the truth, consider most of us unworthy of anything but casual contempt. And their ratings plummet, and their companies are sold off for pocket change, and they learn nothing from it.”
Parenthetically, it’s interesting to watch the right wing’s vain and pathetic attempts to reach for some kind of equivalency. First it was the NAACP resolution calling on the Tea Party to drop its racist elements, answered by Andrew Breitbart’s smear of a USDA official with false allegations of racism. Now Treacher digs up a 2008 Couric outtake so insipid even he has to admit it is “pretty mild.” And Jim, as to your familiar victim whine –- “these guardians of the truth” who “consider most of us unworthy of anything but casual contempt” –- after reading the contemptible comments on the YouTube clip you posted, would you care to revise your remark?
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
Adventures in TEA PARTY Campaigns: FOX IS PRAVDA And Sharron Angle RUNS For SOVIET POLITBURO
Ah, this is RICH! The Hits just keep on coming for Sharron Angle, Tea Party darling opposing Harry Reid for Senate in Nevada. Back in the days of Soviet Russia, PRAVDA was the OFFICIAL PARTY ORGAN (media organization) and Communist Party Politburo members would have their pre-screened interviews and campaign pressers sanitized, censored, and approved for printing by (substitute Communist for TEA) Party apparatchiks.
It’s not that “the fix is (SUDDENLY) in” with Fox “News” playing Party propagandist and mouthpiece for Tea Party and GOP (they’re largely –- but not entirely –- one and the same) candidates; it’s that even the MOST OBTUSE Teabaggers in on the game are expected to understand the ‘wink-and-a-nod’ aspect of it!
Along comes Sharon Angle, extremist par excellence, to throw a bag of tea in the works and leave her Fox News HANDLER RED-FACED and blathering. Wouldn’t you like to be a fly-in-the-wall of this particular post-production debrief:
“Tell me that TEABAGGING IDIOT DIDN’T MAKE THIS INDECENT PROPOSAL!” Screams Faux Fox “News” Director. “DON’T SHE KNOW OUR NEWS CRED IS ON THE LINE? FIRST THEY CATCH BREITBART, NOW SHE OPENS HER MOUTH ON BACKGROUND, OFF THE RECORD STUFF!”
It’s not that “the fix is (SUDDENLY) in” with Fox “News” playing Party propagandist and mouthpiece for Tea Party and GOP (they’re largely –- but not entirely –- one and the same) candidates; it’s that even the MOST OBTUSE Teabaggers in on the game are expected to understand the ‘wink-and-a-nod’ aspect of it!
Along comes Sharon Angle, extremist par excellence, to throw a bag of tea in the works and leave her Fox News HANDLER RED-FACED and blathering. Wouldn’t you like to be a fly-in-the-wall of this particular post-production debrief:
“Tell me that TEABAGGING IDIOT DIDN’T MAKE THIS INDECENT PROPOSAL!” Screams Faux Fox “News” Director. “DON’T SHE KNOW OUR NEWS CRED IS ON THE LINE? FIRST THEY CATCH BREITBART, NOW SHE OPENS HER MOUTH ON BACKGROUND, OFF THE RECORD STUFF!”
Sister Sarah’s Missing Brain FOUND: Pair of Caribou Cojones
Sister Sarah claims the President lacks the cojones (balls) Gov. Jan Brewer does (?) to enforce immigration. It makes good copy in RightWingVille, but the question must be asked: How much cojones (political courage) did it take Jan Brewer to sign SB 1070, Arizona’s racist and unconstitutional anti-immigration law? (1) It’s popular not only in Arizona, but in national polls generally; and (2) it’s an incompetent bureaucrat’s ticket to election (Brewer occupied the office vacated by current Homeland Security Sec. Janet Napolitano).
And how much cojones does it really take to beat up on Latino immigrants? A bullet was fired through the office window of Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva. He’s still waiting for the Governor, Senators Kyl and McCain, each of them demagogues and LIARS, to condemn this act of violence.
Take away SB 1070 and Jan Brewer is a big fat ZERO; a nothing, a nobody, what she is in reality. The President has actually enforced the immigration laws more stringently than his predecessor. That is a fact. That it has become a Republican political football to spread fear of foreigners and dark people among whites is nothing new. It’s part of the Republican playbook. Why don’t you come out and play, Caribou Barbie, give some interviews to the MSM outside the Fox propaganda echo chamber. Then we’ll see whose 'virtual' cojones you can match, missy.
And how much cojones does it really take to beat up on Latino immigrants? A bullet was fired through the office window of Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva. He’s still waiting for the Governor, Senators Kyl and McCain, each of them demagogues and LIARS, to condemn this act of violence.
Take away SB 1070 and Jan Brewer is a big fat ZERO; a nothing, a nobody, what she is in reality. The President has actually enforced the immigration laws more stringently than his predecessor. That is a fact. That it has become a Republican political football to spread fear of foreigners and dark people among whites is nothing new. It’s part of the Republican playbook. Why don’t you come out and play, Caribou Barbie, give some interviews to the MSM outside the Fox propaganda echo chamber. Then we’ll see whose 'virtual' cojones you can match, missy.
Paul Predicts End of Mullah Rule, Iran President Ahmedinejad Goes Berserk
If he did, he’s not telling the world, it’s classified until Wiki Leaks releases the “Paul Files.” But Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad sure got the message as he launched into an anti-Paul rant. It looks like the aquatic Nostradamus has gotten himself into the dictator’s head, and under his skin. Paul, screeched the dictator, is a symbol of decadent “Western propaganda and superstition.” Look out, Mahmoud, Paul’s gonna getcha, he’s gaining on you, disguised as a mullah!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
