58 Second FLAT Post-GOP Debate Analysis: Only Perry Can Stop Bachmann In Iowa

T-Paw, aka Tim Pawlenty, finally filled lifted himself off doormat wimp status to viciously attack ... a woman.

Can't you just picture a white-knuckled Larry-O pleading: "GO, TIMMY, GO!"?

Newt Gingrich made the most sense; some pundits even claim he "won" the debate; when one's fake presidential campaign is in the red, one's mind tends to focus on raising sufficient funds to continue paying for Callista's expansive expensive tastes: Private jets and a burgeoning bling bill.

Rick Perry won by not showing up.

Secret Fox candidate Mitt Romney was under wraps by Rupert's Honchos and escaped relatively unscathed ... Was placement of rabid chihuahua T-Paw next to Michele a fortuitous luck of the draw? I don't think so.

But the debate's BIG WINNER was Michele Bachmann, for this. Grace under pressure is what it's all about and the QUEEN OF CRAZY showed plenty of it, consolidating her vote and bringing mucho más empathetic fencesitters along:

(Note: If Rick Perry can't stop Bachmann in Iowa, WATCH OUT! In the coming days, look for the Fox propaganda machine to temporarily boost Perry and sing T-Paw's praises in a pincer attack move to stop her. Carefully calibrated to maintain their boy Mittzy in his tenuous lead.)

"Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad" Not Just A Meatloaf Hit ... But It's So Gary Cooper!

Wisconsin's recall election results posits the same challenge President Obama made to Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont: That us progressive "guys" keep looking at the glass as half-full. While we're at it with the dueling metaphors, we're still "Waiting For Godot."

On the positive side, Democrats poached TWO state senate seats in HISTORIC Republican districts. That's two less wingnuts to advance Governor Walker's RADICAL RIGHT AGENDA in a senate that now has a razor-thin Republican majority of one. And with one moderate senate Republican who has opposed Walker's destructive policies, Democrats are well positioned to put the brakes on Walker. The political system regained SOME of its balance — but not ALL. WALKER'S RECALL IS NEXT.

Considering the shady outside groups fronted by the Koch Brothers, Karl Rove's group, and astroturf Tea Party ZOMBIES poured some 40 million into the state, against which the Democrats, labor unions, progressives and citizens movements were not even close to being competitive in funding, taking two out of three senate seats was no small feat. BUT BY RIGHTS THE DEMOCRATS SHOULD HAVE RUN THE TABLE, AND WOULD HAVE, IF ONLY THEY HAD THE MILLIONS TO FUND THEIR CANDIDATES THAT RIGHT WING OLIGARCHS POURED INTO WISCONSIN TO DEFEND THEIR TURF AND ECONOMIC INTERESTS.

In the end, the battle between PEOPLE POWER on the citizens side and the CORPORATE OLIGARCHS' Citizens United campaign to BUY ELECTIONS AND DEFEAT THE PEOPLE can be called a DRAW, with a slight advantage, perhaps, redounding to the criminal oligarchs. Some progressives like Thom Hartmann have posited that Wisconsin was the laboratory for the post-Citizens United campaign for TOTAL corporate takeover of government by the Oligarchy, which already runs much of this country.

We may be like Gary Cooper in For Whom The Bell Tolls fighting the good fight against Franco's Fascists and his Fascist proxies, Hitler and Mussolini, who poured all of their sophisticated machinery of war into the Spanish Civil War on Generalissimo Franco's side to test tactics and strategy in advance of the world war, ultimately crushing the freedom fighters. Gary Cooper was cool and brave, but his character DIED and the gallant Lincoln Brigade was defeated. In short, we progressives LOST the first fight against transnational fascism. It would take a wider WORLD WAR, at the cost of millions of lives, to finally defeat fascism.

So if Wisconsin is like Spain in 1937, and the OLIGARCHS, the Koch Brothers, Karl Rove, Fox-Limbaugh-Beck et al, their political arm — the Republican/Tea Party— are the POLITICAL manifestation of pure, EVIL FASCISM, we progressives had better brace for a long, hard fight. So let us celebrate this PEOPLE POWER victory against overwhelming odds, understanding it's going to be a really REALLY tough fight unless we even the playing field and find a way to neutralize their bottomless money pit.

But when our FINAL VICTORY comes, AND IT WILL, history teaches us their collapse will be swift. The misery they inflicted on us will be OVER in a matter of days. Let's keep fighting the good fight. Just like Gary Cooper in For Whom The Bell Tolls. It tolls for thee.

HIGH NOON is up next!

RICK PERRY'S ARMIES OF GOD: WINGNUT AMERICA'S PROPHETS OF WEIRD

THE DUDE with the Lenin goatee, C Peter Wagner, founder of the WEIRD “New Apostolic Movement” — gives off the vibe he’s really CRAVING for HIMSELF a little of that midnight action with the “Sun Goddess” that he claims the Emperor of Japan has been getting.

And Mike Bickle, Director of something called the “International House of Prayer” in Kansas City … well, he looks like he could be coaching Rachel’s favorite football team, the New England Patriots. I kept imagining his locker room pep talk to the team moments before taking the field to confront the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field. It goes something like this:

“This is CHICAGO, America’s BABYLON, home base to OPRAH, THE HARLOT OF BABYLON! Let’s get out there to do battle with the HARLOT OF BABYLON’S team, THE CHICAGO BEARS, IN THEIR SATANIC BLACK UNIFORMS — AND WIN ONE FOR JEEEEEEEEEEEZUS!!!”

Is it just me, or is this dude a dead ringer for HATED Patriots coach Bill Belichick? Kidding, kidding … Seriously, though, Rick Perry is positioning himself TO THE RIGHT of Michele Bachmann and, of course, Mitt Romney as the ULTIMATE PROPHET OF WEIRD. David Axelrod must be thinking this is an embarrassment of riches.

President Obama's Strange Snub Of Prominent African Americans

I ran across this article by Chris Hedges detailing the little-known rift (I didn't know about it until I read this) between Cornel West, a self-described "prominent and provocative democratic intellectual," and President Obama. I like Dr. West. The Class of 1943 University Professor at Princeton University is nothing if not provocative. He challenges our comfort zones on matters of race and privilege, on the real "class warfare" being waged by rich right wing oligarchs against the poor and the underclass, who are mostly but not exclusively black and latino. As an intellectual of the left, a black man who speaks truth to power, Dr. West isn't a favorite of the mainstream corporate media.

Yet, the article has to be taken with a grain of salt. It's one man's account of a presidential snub that is hard to reconcile with what most of us think we know of the President's public persona, often describe as his terminal "niceness." So it was jarring to read Dr. West's version of his last personal contact with President Obama, although his reference to the controlling Valerie Jarrett has the ring of truth:

Obama and West’s last personal contact took place a year ago at a gathering of the Urban League when, he says, Obama “cussed me out.” Obama, after his address, which promoted his administration’s championing of charter schools, approached West, who was seated in the front row.

“He makes a bee line to me right after the talk, in front of everybody,” West says. “He just lets me have it. He says, ‘You ought to be ashamed of yourself, saying I’m not a progressive. Is that the best you can do? Who do you think you are?’ I smiled. I shook his hand. And a sister hollered in the back, ‘You can’t talk to professor West. That’s Dr. Cornel West. Who do you think you are?’ You can go to jail talking to the president like that. You got to watch yourself. I wanted to slap him on the side of his head.

“It was so disrespectful,” he went on, “that’s what I didn’t like. I’d already been called, along with all [other] leftists, a “F’ing retard” by Rahm Emanuel because we had critiques of the president.”

Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to the president, has, West said, phoned him to complain about his critiques of Obama. Jarrett was especially perturbed, West says, when he said in an interview last year that he saw a lot of Malcolm X and Ella Baker in Michelle Obama. Jarrett told him his comments were not complimentary to the first lady.

This sounds like something Valerie Jarrett would say. Ever since the President unceremoniously threw Van Jones under the bus once Glenn Beck and the wingnut propaganda machine of Limbaugh and Fox smeared him as a Marxist, the White House (Jarrett, evidently) has seemed phobic about presenting President Obama as anything beyond the enigmatic milquetoast that so puzzles us. Because, honestly, I believe Dr. West was quite complimentary of the First Lady. Only a narrow-minded person, or the legions of racist and ignorant Obama-haters, could possibly think otherwise. It's fruitless to speak their talking points — "fair and balanced." They cannot be won over and they will not vote for the President.

I have this nagging suspicion that if Mr. Obama's presidency continues to go south with its conservative and corporatist triangulations, its Hamlet vacillations, ignoring progressives and mangling its message, as it gets into a defensive risk-averse crouch when bold leadership is required, that Jarrett will bear much responsibility for these failings. She may be to President Obama what Bert Lance was to Jimmy Carter and Don Regan was to Reagan. And that's not good. Long-time "family friends" of presidents in sensitive White House perches — literally carrying a ministry without portfolio — can be lethal to a president's success. Just saying.

I do not agree with it, but I can sort of understand why President Obama, at Jarrett's urging, would decide to marginalize and ostracize Dr. West. But to treat Tavis Smiley, a compelling and articulate advocate for the poor, the underprivileged, the wrongly imprisoned, the armies of the chronically unemployed; to treat Tavis with the same neglect, even disdain, isn't just asinine — it's beyond the pale:

African American unemployment in America stands not at 9.3 percent, but at 16 percent. For our first African American president to countenance this without doing anything of significance to address it is disgraceful. Go ahead, Mr. President. Pass the buck to an unconstitutional "super committee" in Congress to cut and slash entitlements from those who can least afford it, while giving the rich another free ride. Now that the markets are down, you'll have an excuse not to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire. Once Baucus flips, you'll have a neat "Voodoo economics" Republican/Tea Party package ready for your signature. ("Signed, sealed, delivered — I'm yours: Tea Party.")

But should you ever feel the moral obligation, the righteous pull to propose an FDR-style government jobs program, at least target it to those who are hardest-hit; the 16 percent African American unemployed. Do it for them, sir. And damn your critics.

MINI-RANT RE: Wisconsin State Senate RECALL Races

The Democrats won two out of three seats needed to take the majority in the Wisconsin State Senate. ONCE AGAIN, the CROOKED REPUBLICAN WAUKESHA COUNTY IS HOLDING BACK FROM REPORTING ITS RESULTS! Remember the State Supreme Court race, when Democratic challenger Joanne Kloppenburg was officially declared the winner — but then the REPUGNANT CROOKS of Waukesha County MAGICALLY FOUND 14,000 votes; JUST ENOUGH TO FLIP THE ELECTION. DAMMIT, IT'S TIME THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT STEP IN AND LOCK DOWN THOSE VOTING MACHINES!

PS - IF SANDY PASCH MAINTAINS HER CURRENT LEAD AND WINS, DISREGARD THIS POST.

FIFTY-NINE PERCENT OF AMERICANS DISAPPROVE OF SATAN!

SUBMITTED FOR YOUR PERUSAL: A NEW CNN POLL FINDS THAT 59 PERCENT OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE DISAPPROVE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.  THIS IS THE WORST THAT EITHER PARTY HAS EVER POLLED AT SINCE CNN BEGAN TAKING THIS POLL. THESE CITIZENS ALSO EXPRESSED STRONG DISAPPROVAL OF SATAN. (I made that part up, but it stands to reason, NO?) The Democratic Party has held steady with a 47-47 percent approval-disapproval split. (had they shown just a smidgeon of backbone their numbers certainly would crack a 50-plus majority.)

ARSON AND RIOTING IN BRITAIN; POLITICAL ARSON AT HOME; MARKET CLOSED DOWN 6.66 %

OH MY ... Here's a friendly reminder for those of a supernatural bent: This DEVIL of a manufactured POLITICAL-turned-ECONOMIC crisis, this DEVIL'S BREW, was fueled by TEA PARTY extremists who torched the routine debt ceiling raise amid a fragile economic recovery and economic troubles abroad, bringing our nation TO THE BRINK OF DEFAULT.  LET US BE CLEAR: THIS IS THE TEA PARTY DOWNGRADE.

It's one thing for an ignorant rabble, well funded by sinister right wing corporate interests like the Koch Brothers, waving racist signs outside Congress and screaming 'SHUT 'ER DOWN', STOP raising the debt ceiling; it's quite another thing to send an extremist, uncontrollable minority to Congress that KNOWS NOTHING of governing and economic policy, whose SOLE MISSION IS TO BLOW UP GOVERNMENT, proudly taking ownership of the downgrade because, they claim INSANELY, it will be 'CLEANSING' to our economy to the tune of a 600-plus and counting market crash that imperils EVERY AMERICAN'S WEALTH AND RETIREMENT SECURITY.

TEA PARTY political nihilism could lead to similar civil unrest this side of the pond as we're witnessing in Britain and Greece with top-down austerity measures imposed on the people. From the New York Times report: "For a society already under severe economic strain, the rioting raised new questions about the political sustainability of the Cameron government’s spending cuts, particularly the deep cutbacks in social programs. These have hit the country’s poor especially hard, including large numbers of the minority youths who have been at the forefront of the unrest."

And while the Beltway Media have ENABLED and ROMANTICIZED this TEA PARTY RABBLE OF IMBECILES, rather than taking a long hard look at who's been pulling the strings and exposing the EXTREME RIGHT WING IDEOLOGY behind the STUPID DRESS-UP FALSE HISTORY FOUNDING FATHER BROMIDES ... As the Idiot Punditocracy takes its eye off the ball, REAL PEOPLE POPULISM is coming to a head in Wisconsin today with the recall election of six Republican state senators. IF not for Big Eddie and Rachel and John Nichols of  THE NATION, this story would go largely unreported. Why have the Idiot Punditocracy ignored ALEC and the RADICAL Republican agenda for the states?

Speak of the DEVIL, get with the program, Chris Matthews. You consistently misrepresent the Republican elephant logo in your program's visuals. Yours is not to question "WHY?" the inverted GOP SATANIC STAR; but to report and visually present it accurately. Like Rachel, por ejemplo:

TEA PARTY Remedial Ed: Stop Whining About Your CRAZY QUEEN OF RAGE

Magazines are shallow. THEY LOVE TO DO CRAZY. You think this is the first time they've ever had FUN surrounding REAL OR IMAGINED CRAZY POLITICIANS? Get a load of this 1972 TIME Magazine cover of Missouri Senator Thomas Eagleton who wasn't properly vetted to be George McGovern's Veep nominee, omitting the small detail he had undergone electroshock therapy for "exhaustion" and "depression."

No biggie, right? Turns out the TIME editors decided to project Eagleton as a wide-eyed lunatic (?) in this ultra-closeup IN-YOUR-FACE cover shot. Despite McGovern further undermining his credibility by saying he was "1,000 percent" behind Eagleton, this TIME cover was widely credited with pretty much dooming Eagleton's prospects, forcing him to withdraw from the ticket. After the balloons had come down. OOPs ...

BOTTOM LINE: If the QUEEN OF CRAZY and gay hubby Marcus can't stand the HEAT — GET OUT OF THE KITCHEN. (Maybe not Marcus; he looks to enjoy cooking and wearing aprons) ... And TEABAGGERS: Embrace the CRAZY. It's SO YOU! It's an accurate Michele cover, too:

On Lines In The Sand And A Triple-A Country

We've heard it all before. The President keeps insisting on a "balanced" approach when surely he must know by now that he is dealing with political extremists. YES, WE DO HAVE TERRORISTS in the Republican Party and their name is the TEA PARTY. This economic mess with politicizing a routine raise in the debt ceiling and the manufacturing of a phony "crisis" is what led to the current REAL CRISIS in our markets and the downgrading of our credit rating. A correction was coming, to be sure, given the events in Europe. But these ignorant, intransigent extremists in the Tea Party Caucus behaved with such monumental irresponsibility in government that it mushroomed into the PERFECT STORM we see today.

Standard & Poors is an ass. They were neck-deep in the Great Bush Recession of 2007 by enabling the criminals on Wall Street who recklessly brought our economy to its knees. They never put the brakes on or questioned the casino economy which burst the housing bubble. They rubber-stamped the swindles of Wall Street's biggest 'operators' pushing risky credit default swaps. Suddenly, with a change in administration and an African American president, S&P gets religion as they decide to give our nation a credit rating black eye?

But the brutal reality is, this ass of a messenger looked at the dysfunctionality in Washington and issued a political credit downgrade based on Wall Street's lack of confidence in our government. Democrats like Senator John Kerry are calling this the "Tea Party downgrade." With good reason. Some 80 or so extremists in the House and their cowering acolytes in the Republican Party have hijacked government, terrorized their leadership, and tanked our economy. Their icons aren't economists; they're right wing whackos like Grover Norquist who has forced much of the Republican members to sign a no-taxes-EVER pledge, lest they be "primaried." That's insanity, the tail wagging the dog. Here's S&P's indictment of Tea Party Republicans in Congress:

Compared with previous projections, our revised base case scenario now assumes that the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, due to expire by the end of 2012, remain in place. We have changed our assumption on this because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues, a position we believe Congress reinforced by passing the act.

With the market spiraling down and no bottom in sight, with the President bemoaning "lines in the sand" from extremists while failing to recognize that to LEAD HE MUST HAVE SOME LINES IN THE SAND OF HIS OWN, and with the unhappy metaphor that we will "always be a TRIPLE-A country" which made me think of baseball's farm system, Dan Rather said if this President "has some fight in him, now's the time to show it." Because now, the CRAZIES are running the asylum:

This is the TEA PARTY/REPUBLICAN jobless DEPRESSION. While Republicans cut ALL AND ANY jobs programs in Congress, Republican governors LAID OFF 37,000 GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES. So much for "jobs jobs jobs." SPEAKER BOEHNER, WHERE ARE THE JOBS!