National Council for a New America Wants You, Roy Blunt, Louis Gomert, American Energy Alliance, Robert J. Samuelson and the Texas State Board of Ed.

Meet the new Republican party, the new Republican party that now empathizes with those it used to scorn.

The new Republican party is looking forward to taking on new tough challanges. They want to be loved by the GLBT community, they want to be loved by the working class, they want to be loved by someone other than the angry, closed-minded, white folks that have filled their dance cards for the last 100 years.

They are rebranding their image. No longer wanting to be known as the "Party of No", they are now officially the "National Council for a New America" or unofficially "We'll change, we'll do anything if you'll just take us back, just give us one more chance. Please!" council.

Yeah, the GOP knows that it's about as popular as dog vomit right now and they are desperately wanting to convince the American people that their policies really wasn't the reasons that led this nation to near ruin over the 30 years. They want to do this and keep their extreme base happy at the same time. The same extreme base that actually liked those policies and want more of the same.

Prepare to be bamboozled.

Some Republican leaders today launched what they are calling a "conversation with America."

It was the first of several events planned as part of a new movement they're calling The National Council for a New America. The event drew some of the biggest names in the GOP, including former presidential candidate Mitt Romney and former Florida governor Jeb Bush.

Their effort is drawing a lot of attention, the venue was packed.

Audience members packed into a small pizza joint in Arlington to listen and to be heard.

Even with the success of drawing enough semi-openminded supporters and sycophants

...which included reporters, Republican aides and their friends,...

to fill a small pizza place they still have a tiny problem.

But it's a complex task -- going back to roots of fiscal conservatism, without marginalzing a social conservative base -- all the while reaching out to moderates and independents who have left the party in droves.

And just how is all this love working out with that base?

...a group of conservative activists who were protesting in the parking lot complained that they were not allowed through the doors.

“We’re demonstrating against the fact that this organization set up by RINOs [Republicans in Name Only] have taken immigration off the agenda,” said Michael McLaughlin, a member of the American Council for Immigration Reform, a group seeking to stem the flow of immigrants into the country.

The activists grumbled that Republican organizers did not widely advertise the event. Several wearing shirts declaring themselves “Republicans Against Maverick McCain” craned their necks for a glimpse of the senior lawmaker, who did not show up.

Hey, the GOP crawled through the crap on their bellies to court the extremists, they got 'em and now they can't function without them. Cosmic justice? Yeah, if cosmic justice has a sense of humor. I know I'm getting one hell of a kick out of this.

Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO) has kind of an unique take on the situation. It sort of defies logic, but then logic is not really necessary when you have faith in the infallibility of your party's ideology.

“Just because we’re in a situation now where we vote no doesn’t mean we are the ‘party of no’ or have no ideas,” said former House Republican Whip Roy Blunt , who is running for Senate in Missouri and signed the letter. “This adds another way of getting those ideas out there.”

That's right folks, if it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, it ain't no duck. It's actually a clever plan to make sure that the Republican's fresh new ideas, which they're not talking about because they're the same ideas that got us into this mess in the first place, get out to the American people.

They make this so easy.

Outside of the National Council for a New America, it looks pretty much like the SOS.

MIT economist John Reilly has come out and criticized Republicans for distorting his research on clean energy policy. GOP officials have been repeatedly misusing his work to claim that a cap-and-trade system would cost American families $3,100 in extra energy taxes each year. (In fact, the study actually says that any tax burden would be about one-fortieth of what Republicans claim.) Instead of responding to Reilly with facts, Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-TX) is now bashing the economist with ad hominem attacks in CNS News:

You're gonna love this.

Anyone who thinks you can pay $3,100 to the federal government and thinks you can get that money back completely in services — like I said — he may go to M-I-T but he is an N-U-T.

This has been the Right's strategy for the last 30 years. If you repeat something enough it becomes common knowledge thereby the truth. And it has worked great. It doesn't say much for the intellect of the American people though.

In the American people's defense, the Right has some pretty sophisticated help in perpetuating these myths. Take for instance,

The largest U.S. energy companies increased lobbyist spending by 30% in 2008 to influence energy and climate change legislation. Some of those funds are now going towards the creation of the American Energy Alliance, a new off-shoot of Institute for Energy Research.

The American Energy Alliance is headed by an oil industry lobbyist named Thomas J. Pyle. Before joining AEA, Pyle was a policy adviser to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX). Pyle’s former employer was among the top recipients of oil industry campaign contributions from 1998 to 2004, raking in $498,375 according to the Center for Public Integrity. Pyle then went to work for the oil-giant, Koch Industries.

The American Energy Alliance is airing radio ads in the home districts of moderate Democrats in order to press legislators to vote against the Waxman-Markey clean energy bill.

The ad repeats the debunked $3,100 lie that energy companies and their conservative allies have been pushing for weeks.

And Robert J. Samuelson of The Washington Post is doing his part to help the cause too. According to him, Obama hates the Oil companies to the detriment of all Americans.

Considering the brutal recession, you'd expect the Obama administration to be obsessed with creating jobs. And so it is, say the president and his supporters. The trouble is that there's one glaring exception to their claims: the oil and natural gas industries. The administration is biased against them -- a bias that makes no sense on either economic or energy grounds. Almost everyone loves to hate the world's Exxons, but promoting domestic drilling is simply common sense.

Improved production techniques (example: drilling in deeper waters) have increased America's recoverable oil and natural gas. The resistance to tapping these resources is mostly political. To many environmentalists, expanding fossil fuel production is a cardinal sin. The Obama administration often echoes this reflexive hostility. The resulting policies aim more to satisfy popular prejudice -- through photo ops and sound bites -- than national needs.

I think Samuelson is just a shill for Big Oil.

Here's what other folks had to say about him.

Before we get all warm and fuzzy about real journalists at The Washington Post like Dana Milbank�or whores like Jonathan Weisman who sometimes act like real journalists�it�s important to remember that paper is still firmly captured, ensnared by corporate greed and a nauseating self-righteousness.

Robert J. Samuelson fits that profile perfectly today in his incredibly dishonest and condescending piece The Phony Job Debate. �Electing a president based on job creation makes as much sense as selecting a doctor based on palm reading.�

And from The New Mexico Independent,

His Establishment bias goes way beyond health. No agonizing for Samuelson on the growing income gap between the very rich and everybody else – shades of the 1920s! Nor on the export of American jobs or low investment in public goods (like crumbling bridges). He has inveighed against swollen Wall Street salaries, but on the deregulation now jeopardizing us, he’s been confused, as if the problem was bad people on Wall Street rather than the system. Thus, in April, as the subprime scandal unfolded, Samuelson wrote that greed, shortsightedness and herd behavior compromise modern finance. “But regulation cannot cure this dilemma, because regulators can’t anticipate all the problems and hazards, either.”

That’s wrong, mostly. Regulation did deter but corporate America had it removed.

If you have two functioning brain cells to rub together, you know that regulation worked. We can thank Bill Clinton and some of the other Democrats for caving on that one.

But the more the Right feigns change, the more things stay the same.

"In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made school boards."

Mark Twain wrote that in 1897, and Americans still quote it, with feeling. It comes to mind for many observers of a current battle over science education in Texas.

Texas's school board, the State Board of Education (BOE), has been fighting about standards for science textbooks the state buys. Since March, clamorous attention has focused on a proposal to require that texts discuss the "strengths and weaknesses" of evolutionary theory. Everyone knew this was a ploy to get creationist ideas into the classroom. The scientific community was relieved when the BOE finally voted not to include that language – and dismayed when it then voted for amendments that mandate the same thing. The BOE's exuberant chair says he's not afraid to "stand up to the experts."

What's expert opinion worth when compared to a right winger's intuition?

I'll leave you with what passes for humor in Right Wing Fantasy Land. Yeah, another e-mail.

OBAMA TO TAX ASPIRIN.....

I JUST HEARD THAT YOUR PRESIDENT OBAMA IS GOING TO IMPOSE A 40% TAX ON ASPIRIN BECAUSE IT'S WHITE AND IT WORKS.

Sick puppies.

Later.

Congressional Democrats Taking Bids on Their Votes, Estate Tax, Farm Subsidies, Health Care, Bankruptcy Law, Ben Nelson and Richard Lugar.

This post would have been out a lot earlier, at least 24 hours, if it weren't for my electric going out, the cloud cover zapped my internet connection and my poor old kerosine powered computer wanting to take a break.

In the 2008 elections it was pretty obvious that the country wanted change. We knew that we could expect plenty of opposition from the Republicans. We're getting plenty of that.

What's surprising is the amount of opposition that we are getting from those who are supposedly on our side.

This is from 2006:

With the 2006 midterm elections nearing and the Republicans receiving record-low approval ratings from the American public, companies and business groups are reaching out to opposition leaders in anticipation of a possible Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives, or even a Democratic sweep of Congress for the first time in 14 years.

The good news for the business as usual folks is that it's working. It looks like a lot of Democrats have no problem whoring for the lobbyists.

The House and Senate approved a $3.5-trillion federal budget outline Wednesday that embraces, in general terms, Obama's top priorities in healthcare, energy and education. But lawmakers have turned a cold shoulder to many of the president's proposals to shift wealth and federal subsidies from the rich to the less affluent.

That's right, too many congressional Democrats are spreading their legs for Big Business and the rich while giving the finger to the working class.

What I find as the most egregious breach of trust by some Democrats is:

Some Democrats even defected from Obama when it came to taxing the wealthiest Americans through the estate tax.

You've heard of the estate tax, the Right calls it the "Death Tax" and says it's the evil government's attempt to tax a person for dying. Like most things the Right claims, this is just pure BS.

The estate tax actually only applies to .025% of us, I guess "of them" would be more accurate. That's .025% of the wealthiest in this country. In fact, 18 of the richest families in the country have been financing the lobbying to do away with the estate tax.

Eighteen families, including the owners of Nordstrom Inc., The Seattle Times Co., Mars Inc., Koch Industries Inc. and Wal-Mart Inc., that stand to save $71.6 billion in taxes are financing lobbying efforts to repeal the estate tax, according to a study by two groups.

Public Citizen and United for a Fair Economy, which want to see estate tax rates increased to as high as 60 percent, said the families perpetrated a fraud on ordinary Americans by saying the levy constitutes an unfair "death tax." Only about 0.25 percent of Americans who die this year will leave an estate large enough to be taxed, the groups said.

That's quite a cause that these Democrats are rallying to.

Some Dems tucked their tails between their shaky legs on farm subsidies too.

The congressional budget did not incorporate Obama's proposal to cut off subsidies to farms with sales exceeding $500,000 a year, a move that bowed to the agriculture lobby and influential rural lawmakers, including the Senate Budget Committee's Conrad.

A lot of my relatives around here were farmers and trust me, the money does not go to family farms. It's not often that I agree with the Heritage Foundation. I guess it's true that if you dig through enough crap you might finally find that pony. It's from 2002, but things haven't changed.

These subsidy programs tax working Americans to award millions to millionaires and provide profitable corporate farms with money that has been used to buy out family farms. The current farm bills1 would provide even greater subsidies for large farmers, costing the average household $4,400 over the next 10 years, while facilitating increased consolidation and buyouts in the agricultural industry.2

It's kinda funny that using taxpayer money to do anything to help the working class is such a bad thing while giving this same money to Big Business and the Rich is a noble cause. But then, they can afford to give some of it back to the same politicians who voted to give it to them.

Here's another example of just how dumb some Democrats are:

Meanwhile, middle-class voters face the prospect of losing Obama's "Making Work Pay" tax credit -- of as much as $400 for individuals and $800 for couples -- after 2010.The budget resolution did not make room for a longer extension of the tax break.

Democrats said they had to impose that limit, at least for now, in deference to the worsening budget outlook.

Who do they think is electing them?

Most of us understand that all civilized countries have universal health care, that it works and it's less expensive than the mess that we call health care in this country. The president wants to partly fund it in this country by lowering the deduction for charitable donations to 28% from 33%. Only the rich get the 33% deduction, the rest of us just get the 28% anyway.

Needless to say, the lobbyists are having a fit over this.

Obama has defended the proposal as a matter of equity: Under current law, tax deductions are worth less to middle-class taxpayers than they are to wealthier people. For example, a middle-class bus driver gets only a 28% write-off for a $100 donation; someone in the upper income brackets gets 33% or more for the same donation.

Nonetheless, Obama's proposal is destined to fail, said Roberton Williams, a fellow at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. "It sets up two groups to be the fall guys, and that mobilizes two fairly strong lobbies," he said.

Even the good guys in Congress can't compete with the Lobby Whores.

Today, a proposal to change bankruptcy law and allow bankruptcy judges to cram-down mortgage payments for troubled homeowners failed in the Senate by a vote of 45-51. The provision, which was introduced as an amendment by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), required 60 votes to pass. In recent weeks, support for the measure evaporated in the face of furious lobbying by the banking and mortgage industries. Prior to the vote, Durbin — who this week said that bankers “are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill” — took to the floor to decry the banking industry’s influence in the cram-down debate:

On the same subject:

The U.S. Senate could have stepped up to the plate yesterday and passed an amendment to help bankruptcy judges help homeowners. Instead, twelve Democrats joined all the Republicans in the Senate--including those two supposed 'moderates' from Maine that we hear so much about--to defeat the amendment.

Just so you know that Democrat Lobby Whores are not just a figment of my overactive imagination:

Sen. Ben Nelson said Thursday that he will oppose the creation of a government-run health insurance plan as part of a health care overhaul, contrary to the position held by many of his fellow Democrats.

The company Nelson finds himself in is laid out clearly: business, the insurance industry, and Republicans. Of course, this isn’t surprising, considering his campaign donation history. Open Secrets says Nelson received $608,709 from the insurance industry in 2007-2008, making the insurance industry his biggest donor group, more than lawyers and even lobbyists.

And our newest Democrat doesn't seem to understand what the hell is going on. If you want to call yourself a Democrat then you ought to at least try to act like one.

Specter (Pa.) on Thursday voted against a controversial bill that would have rewritten bankruptcy laws — a bill cherished by Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) — just a day after voting against the Democratic-written budget.

It's funny how anything designed to help the working class is termed controversial. Anyway, Democratic leaders are somewhat less than livid. "Aw shucks, he's just being independent".

Democratic leaders said Specter's "no" votes simply confirm his independence.

I think we need new leaders.

To quote a great American, "We have met the enemy and he is us." Pogo Possum 1971

Later

Congressman John A. Boehner and Congresswoman Virginia Foxx Fleecing the Rubes.

This is not what I planned on doing today, but when I read it I thought I might be able to have a little fun with it. The first is an interview with Minority Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio by the Washington Times.

The Washington Times, a conservative newspaper was founded by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, the self-proclaimed second coming of Christ and a bigtime GOP backer.

You wouldn't know it by looking at him, but apparently Senator Boehner has a delicate tummy. He tells us about it in the interview.

Boehner says Obama's bills makes him 'want to throw up'

See?

The top House Republican said Tuesday that the liberal bills being pushed by President Obama and congressional Democrats make him "want to throw up" and that Mr. Obama's first 100 days in office have shown he has "no plan for keeping America safe."

Oh, for the good old days when president was ticking off the rest of the world, starting wars for no reason, disregarding terrorist warnings and seeing evil doers behind every bush.

Unfortunately, for Boehner and the Right, paranoia is not conducive to feelings of well being or safety. Catch-22.

Minority Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio said in an interview that decisions such as closing Guantanamo Bay prison and releasing classified memos on CIA interrogation techniques reflect a dangerous, "piecemeal approach" to national security.

"I'm just looking at some of these tactical moves that they've made, and I don't see how they fit into a larger picture," he said in an interview with editors and reporters at The Washington Times. "They have no plan for taking on the terrorists, and they have no plan for keeping America safe. What is the overarching strategy here?"

 

I have to applaud Congressman Boehner for publicly admitting woefully inadequate cognitive abilities. It takes a big man to admit his shortcomings.

The "overarching strategy" can be found here, Obama's NSC Will Get New Power, btw. Always glad to help out the cognitively challenged.

He attacked Democratic initiatives such as a "hate crimes" bill being considered this week in the House, which would boost the federal government's authority to go after "bias-motivated violence." Conservative critics say the bill amounts to a gag rule for preachers and other religious figures who do not support homosexuality.

The bill "makes me want to throw up," Mr. Boehner said, blasting the idea of going after someone for "what we think they were thinking as opposed to what they did."

OMG! Obama's not only coming after our guns, but he wants our preachers too! And then he wants us put in jail for what we think! OMG! OMG! OMG!

It's just hard for me to believe that a grown man like Boehner could say something like this with a straight face. It's even harder for me to believe the number of people who actually believe this crap.

They ought to be just damned glad that there aren't laws against total stupidity in this country.

As I said before this is crap. Are you listening right wingers? It's just absolute BS. In fact, the language of the bill includes,

"Nothing in this Act, or the amendments made by this Act, shall be construed to prohibit any expressive conduct protected from legal prohibition by, or any activities protected by the free speech or free exercise clauses of, the First Amendment to the Constitution."

So you see, Fox News and the Right Wing Propaganda Machine, or even your hate spouting preachers will not be affected in any way. So you'll have to find something else to talk about at your next tea party.

The 10-term lawmaker criticized Mr. Obama's bid to shut down Guantanamo before figuring out where the high-risk terrorist detainees would be placed.

"We have a fabulous facility in Cuba. It is state of the art," he said. "I have no confidence that any detainees we send back to Yemen are going to be in prison for a very long time, and then they're right back on the battlefield."

Yeah, we should just keep them forever in order to make the Right feel safer. Brilliant!

I have a better idea. Let's move out the detainees and since it's such a "fabulous facility in Cuba" with "great food", we could open it up as a resort for vacationing right wingers. I got this from the right wing blogosphere.

It’s a tropical paradise with great food, comfortable accommodations and culturally sensitive religious services. It’s cleaner and more pleasant than the countries of origin of any of the inmates, and is far too good for them.

Too good for them, but great for tired right wingers who need a little rest far away from Obama and all of those America hating liberals. Hasta la vista!

Mr. Boehner also criticized Mr. Obama's release of Bush administration Justice Department memos approving "enhanced interrogation techniques" such as waterboarding, saying it "handcuffs our intelligence professionals." He also challenged the premise that most of the information had been reported, arguing that an official government account is categorically different than a press report.

"They should have fought this court case all the way to the end instead of rolling over for their friends in the [American Civil Liberties Union]," Mr. Boehner said of the lawsuit that prompted the disclosure.

Boehner says he don't want the memos out because it would "handcuff our intelligence professionals". That's a little odd considering that our intelligence professionals say it doesn't work anyway. Like here and here and here.

So torture yields basically either no intelligence or bad intelligence. It don't work and Boehner's all for it. I have to give them credit, right wingers can go farther with no intelligence or bad intelligence than any other group that I've ever seen.

Congressman Boehner also mentioned another of the Right's greatest fears, the ACLU. Imagine an organization that stands up for a person's civil rights, no matter who or what they are. That's just un-American.

Senator Boehner, champion of red herrings and straw dogs.

Champion of the ignorant beyond belief is North Carolina Congresswoman Virginia Foxx. Take a look at what she said:

Rep. Foxx: "The bill was named after a very unfortunate incident that happened, where a young man was killed, but we know that that young man was killed in the commitment of robbery. It wasn't because he was gay. The bill was named for him, the hate crimes bill was named for him, but it's, it's really a hoax, that that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these bills."[House Floor Speech, 4/29/09]

 I mean, even the killers said they did it because he was gay.

I'm glad that these people are finally starting to be seen as the reactionary fringe group that they always have been.

Later.

Right Wing Analysis 101: There Will Be a Test.

I really don't believe in pounding someone when they're down, however, considering all the trouble they've caused this country and since they are practically writing this post, why not?

Once again we'll delve into the twisted psyche of the Right and see just what kind of fun stuff we can come up with.

To be fair, we have to keep in mind that the Right is experiencing extremely high stress at the moment. They're still shellshocked from the 2008 election, only 21% of the population will admit to being Republican and Sen. Arlen Specter has left the Titanic. Thrown overboard is closer to the truth.

So, let's talk about Specter and the Right's reaction to his joining their nemesis.

“I would rather have 30 Republicans in the Senate who really believe in principles of limited government, free markets, free people, than to have 60 that don’t have a set of beliefs.”— Sen. Jim DeMint, R-SC

“Guess now that Larry Craig is gone & Specter realized there was no teabagging at the teaparty, he had to go Dem for Frank to fondle him.”— RedState.com founder Erick Erickson, on Twitter.

“RINO Specter is the first to go! He knows that we conservatives are taking back the party and there’s simply no room for him. He’s just showing his true colors and being what he has been all along: a DEMOCRAT!!!!!! Now, if we could only dump Snowe and Collins….”a Free Republic poster

“I think the threat to the country presented by this defection really relates to the issue of whether or not in the United States of America our people want the majority to have whatever it wants, without restraint, without a check or a balance…. This is not a national story, this is a Pennsylvania story.”— Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell

That's right Senator, the majority of the country want the majority party to have whatever it wants. You don't have to worry about checks and balances, that's our job and we'll do it.

Check out the comments at the bottom of the above article to see how the Right's rank and file handle adversity.

The Right's philosophical leader, the venerated Rush Limbaugh doesn't see it as a defection, but rather an ideological cleansing of his party.

"A lot of people say, 'Well, Specter, take [Sen. John] McCain with you. And his daughter [Meghan]. Take McCain and his daughter with you if you're gonna…" he told listeners, dissolving in laughter.

"…..It's ultimately good. You're weeding out people who aren't really Republicans," he said.

I remember when Rush ragged Chelsea Clinton, now Meghan McCain. You know, I really don't think that Rush cares much for girls.

While Rush was trying to keep his party pure, other right wing commentators were busy planting the notion of Swine Flu being introduced into this country by illegal aliens into their fertile yet empty minds. Of course, that's the only possible explanation.

Despite the fact that there is no evidence to support such claims, talk radio hosts Michael Savage and Neal Boortz, radio and Fox TV personality Glenn Beck, and columnist Michelle Malkin are spreading them faster than the contagion.

"Illegal aliens are bringing in a deadly new flue strain. Make no mistake about it," blares Michael Savage.

"I've blogged for years about the spread of contagious diseases from around the world into the US as a result of uncontrolled immigration," writes Michelle Malkin.

"What happens if there's a rash of deaths in Mexico... and if you're a family in Mexico and people are dying and Americans are not, why wouldn't you flood this border?" announces Glenn Beck.

Oh! But wait, there's an even more logical explanation.

"What better way to sneak a virus into this country than to give it to Mexicans....then spread a rumor there there are construction jobs here, and there they come," blathers Boortz.

Savage — "make no mistake about it" — believes that radical Islamic countries planted the virus in Mexico knowing that humans make the "perfect mules for bringing the strain into America."

Don't you just love well thought out and rational discourse?

Bonnie Fuller answers them point by point in her article that I stole these quotes from.

Specter's not the only Republican that the Right may decide that needs to be cleansed.

WASHINGTON – Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., said Tuesday he will support the nomination of an Indiana University law professor to head the Obama administration’s internal law office.

Some Republicans have promised to try to block Johnsen’s confirmation either because of her support for abortion rights or because she criticized the legal justification used by the Bush administration for the torture of detainees.

OMG! The head of the Excutive Branch law office actually following the law? Well, we know that concept is just way too radical for the staid Right. No wonder they think the Left is crazy.

Despite all of the above, we know that the Right stands firm on whatever they consider principles, which, BTW, I believe still have about a day left on the bidding over at e-bay. When a Republican says something it's etched in stone.

While the stimulus was being debated in January, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor called a group of reporters into his office to outline the GOP's objections. As we filed in, we walked past a giant poster ridiculing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) for allegedly pushing for high-speed rail connecting Disneyland and Las Vegas.

On NBC's "Meet the Press," Cantor called that project an example of "waste and pork-barrel spending."

Asked about high-speed rail at a recent local event in Virginia, Cantor was all thumbs up. "If there is one thing that I think all of us here on both sides of the political aisle from all parts of the region agree with, it's that we need to do all we can to promote jobs here in the Richmond area," Cantor said of the high-speed rail.

No wonder the Right's base is confused, I know I am.

Now we will go from the questionably sane members of the Right to a couple that there's no question about.

The image at the top is the Twitter posts from this guy.

An Oklahoma City man who announced on Twitter that he would turn an April 15 tax protest into a bloodbath was hit with a federal charge of making interstate threats last week, in what appears to be first criminal prosecution to stem from posts on the microblogging site.

Daniel Knight Hayden, 52, was arrested by FBI agents who identified him as the Twitter user CitizenQuasar. In a series of tweets beginning April 11, CitizenQuasar vowed to start a “war” against the government on the steps of the Oklahoma City Capitol building, the site of that city’s version of the national “Tea Party” protests promoted by the conservative-leaning Fox News.

Hayden’s MySpace page is a breathtaking gallery of right wing memes about the “New World Order,” gun control as Nazi fascism, and Barack Obama’s covert use of television hypnosis, among many others.

I really don't understand this guy, we have television and the internet in Oklahoma, hell, some houses even have indoor plumbing, so there's really no excuse for this.

But I think this will make him a frontrunner for Sarah Palin's running mate in the 2012 election. Palin/Quasar, it'll sure look good on your bumper.

I tried to see if I recognized anyone on his friends list, but it's kinda hard since we all kinda tend to look alike in Oklahoma.

Unlike Citizen Quasar, this next guy was just kinda bummed out about Obama getting elected. So, he whacked a couple of deputies. He'll have to do better than that to get the Glenn Beck decoder ring.

An offense report filed against Cartwright the day he died outlines an angry husband who threatened his wife, kept guns and knives on hand, was "severely disturbed" that Barack Obama had been elected president, and believed the U.S. government was conspiring against him.

I was going to save this groundbreaking conclusion for the last, but for some reason I'm putting here, probably hoping it will segue into the next item.

The Right has a tenuous grasp of reality. Shocking, huh?

Ohio State University has done a study and found that the folks on the Right actually think Stephen Colbert is serious and is making fun of the Left. Very, very tenuous.

"Our results aren't that conservatives don't get the joke. It's that how you see the joke depends on who you are," says Kristen Landreville, a PhD student in communications at Ohio State University and one of three co-authors. "If you're conservative, you think the joke's on liberals because he's openly making fun of liberals."

And they think the country would be better off with them in charge.

The right may be down, but they're by no means out. They have a cunning plan.

Washington, D.C. (April 28, 2009) – As the White House and Congressional leaders seek to move the country dramatically left, some of America’s most prominent conservative leaders, strategists, academic voting behavior experts and professional pollsters have come together to form Resurgent Republic, an independent, not-for-profit organization that aims to shape the debate over the proper role of government. More giveaways to Big Business and the rich.

Resurgent Republic will promote market-oriented policies, deregulation lower taxes and economic growth, for Big Biz and the rich and strong national security policies. open the doors of the treasury to defense contractors It will help policy makers, think tanks, interest groups and others advocate for policies that are consistent with conservative principles, and oppose policies that stifle job creation, weaken national security and undermine values that have made America a great country. eight more years of Bush or putting lipstick on a pig---no, not Limbaugh in drag

So, let's review:

What have we learned about the Right, it's inhabitants and it's policies?

If you used any form of the words Bat Guano, you get an A.

Have your educational institution contact me to get that put on your transcript, Right Wing Analysis 101.

Later.

What the Right is Thinking, Fantasizing, Muddling, Mulling Over and/or Wanting to Foment.

First of all, it's pretty obvious that they still believe that they're in the majority, even though they're not.


They also seem to believe that there is a ground swell in this country for a revolution to overthrow our new liberal/socialist/fascist/whatever government that the actual majority voted in.


They actually think that the rest of us are so clueless that we can't understand that the Obama Administration and the Democrat Congress are dismantling the Constitution and bringing in communism as our new form of government. They know this because, by God they love this country and care enough to take interest in what's going on. They stay informed, they listen to talk radio, they watch Fox News, they click on WorldNetDaily and Newsmax and they're all saying the same things, so it must be true.


Oh yeah, and they're going to take our guns away from us. Just like Hitler did.


But hang on a minute, where were all these Constitution lovers during the last eight years. How many of them really realize that there's a lot more to the Constitution than the 2nd Amendment?


Imagine the furor if Barack Obama had said these words:




"I don't give a goddamn," Bush retorted. "I'm the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way."


"Mr. President," one aide in the meeting said. "There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution."


"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face," Bush screamed back. "It's just a goddamned piece of paper!"




I really don't remember their outrage when this happened. They didn't complain when George W. Bush called our Constitution a "Goddamned piece of paper" and they didn't complain when Bush ignored the Constitution and broke the law in doing so.




We may not have realized it at the time, but in the period from late 2001-January 19, 2009, this country was a dictatorship. The constitutional rights we learned about in high school civics were suspended. That was thanks to secret memos crafted deep inside the Justice Department that effectively trashed the Constitution. What we know now is likely the least of it.


Of course, to a card carrying member of the Silent "Majority", none of this stuff actually happened. It was just hype perpetrated by the liberal media. Really.


Let's take a look at what motivates these people.


Here's what a joke looks like in the extreme Right. I think it epitomizes the Right's "Audacity of Hope".


What does President Lincoln, President Kennedy, and Presedent Obama have in common?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Nothing Yet .




I get this neat stuff in my e-mail. It's kinda scary. There's lots of folks out there who really believe this stuff. They are afraid of their government, they are paranoid and they are armed.




Here's a really neat one, it has a biblical theme and it pretty much covers the whole Right Wing Fantasy Land misinformation campaign. You can see it all here.


It's titled "The Promised One". Obama, of course is the Promised One. Here's the happy ending.




> >> And the people said, "Wait a minute. That is unfair!!"


> >> And the world said, "Neither are these other idiotic


> >> programs you have embraced. Lo, you have become a Socialist state and a


> >> second-rate power. Now you shall play by our rules!"


> >> And the people cried out,"Alas, alas!! What have we done?"


> >> But yea verily, it was too late... The people set upon The


> >> One and spat upon him and stoned him, and his name was dung. And the


> >> once mighty nation was no more; and the once proud people were without

> >> sustenance or shelter or hope. And the Change The One had given them was


> >> as like unto a poison that had destroyed them and like a whirlwind that


> >> consumed all that they had built. And the people beat their chests in


> >> despair and cried out in anguish, "Give us back our nation and our pride


> >> and our hope!!" But it was too late, and their homeland was no more.


> >> .......................

> >> You may think this is a fairy tale, but it's not. It's


> >> happening RIGHT NOW!> >>> >>


After reading this, if your not wetting your knickers, you must not be a "real American". Mine's dry too.



You must be thinking, "Why would anyone rather believe untruths and be miserable when it's just as easy to believe the truth?" We all know that knowing the truth doesn't make you happy but at least the things that we're concerned about merit that concern. I mean, we're not going to get off our butts, go buy tea and go protest a 3% tax increase on the richest 5% of the country.


When I first read the next vitriolic screed I thought it was written by one of the "Silent Majority" members who had let the right wing propaganda take her off the deep end and needed to vent their rage before they spontaneously combusted.



It was surprising to find out that the woman who wrote this is quite accomplished. I figure that she is just another of the Right's hired guns that they use to manipulate the rubes.

It's about the Obama's trip to the G20 Summit and her indignation over the Obama's performance during that trip





You can read it all here, but here's some bits and pieces.





Yo, first couple!



Yeah, that's really the title.





OK, Barack and Michelle - it's my turn now.



As long as you seem to be on the road of informality, throwing tradition, etiquette, proper diplomacy, protocol and common sense out the window and replacing it with 21st century casual, I'm taking the liberty, as an American citizen, to give you a message from my heart: stop it!



For two people of your political and diplomatic level, your breezy disregard for proper behavior is embarrassing.





Don't you just love how the Right feels that they are experts on all matters and therefore they should be the arbitrator on all matters, because the rest of us are just too stupid to understand grown up things. Like this.





We've been treated to you repeatedly criticizing and apologizing for our country on foreign soil in front of world leaders. Then, to make it worse, you bowed to the Saudi king, a full, from-the-waist, bow!



What was that about? Bowing signifies subservience! You can make book that the Saudis and all the Middle East understands that. Barack, the president of the United States of America is not subservient to anyone.



That bow was inappropriate and demeaning to your office and to all Americans. You should be ashamed, at the very least, embarrassed.



















You can kinda see my problem with taking these people's selective indignation too seriously.

This was going to be it, but I received a new "joke" today. I just thought I'd share it with you.


Obama walks into a bar with a parrot on his shoulder. The bartender says, Hey, where did you get that? The parrot says, Kenya ...they're all over the place!

When you stop rolling around on the floor check out this video and think about if the Right is who you want leading this country into the future.

Did you know?

I don't think the Right could even come close to grasping the implications.

Later.

Standing With Mississippi.

Heather Young sent me the following information about the Mississippi Center for Justice and their Standing With Mississippi campaign to force Mississippi's corrupt (my word) Republican Governor Haley Barbour to take federal money to help Mississippi's working class and stop acting like a posturing dumbass (again, my words).

OK, Heather I've signed the petition and here's my endorsement.

For those of you who don't know who Haley Barbour is, lucky you. Haley's a big time, Southern, good old boy, anything that helps the rich and screws the poor must be a good thing, Republican party philosopher/propaganda expert. He was even chairman of the Republican National Committee from '94-'97.

Here's a little more background on Barbour courtesy of Think Progress.

Family members and lobbyists profited from Katrina tragedy: "Among the beneficiaries are Barbour's own family and friends, who have earned hundreds of thousands of dollars from hurricane-related business. A nephew, one of two who are lobbyists, saw his fees more than double in the year after his uncle appointed him to a special reconstruction panel."

Owned controlling interest in 2002 New Hampshire phone jamming company: For nearly two hours on election day 2002, subcontractors for the telemarketing firm GOP Marketplace tied-up Democratic and union phone banks with repeated hang up calls. Multiple GOP officials eventually either pled guilty to or were convicted of criminally violating federal communications law. Barbour's investment group, Helm Partners, was not only a major investor in GOP Marketplace, but it also held a controlling interest in the firm.

As a lobbyist, he represented firm indicted in Tom DeLay's money laundering scandal: As a lobbyist for Barbour Griffith & Rogers, Barbour represented The Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care Inc., "a corporate coalition of 14 of the country's largest for-profit nursing home companies." The Alliance wrote a check for $100,000 "ended up illegally funding Republican candidates for the Texas statehouse" in 2002. The check was eventually used as evidence in the case that led to indictments for money laundering against former Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX).

A former tobacco lobbyist, he killed Mississippi's successful anti-smoking program: From 1998 to 2002, Barbour's lobbying firm "was paid a total of $3.8 million by the tobacco companies." As governor of Mississippi, he led an effort to defund and ultimately kill the state's anti-smoking program, considered to be "the nation's most successful anti-smoking programs."

Directed large amounts of reconstruction funds to wealthy homeowners: Barbour and Mississippi's two Republican Senators steered an "unprecedented" $23.5 billion in federal reconstruction aid, but by waiving a HUD requirement that "70 percent of the funds are supposed to be allocated to low- and moderate-income people." Barbour "badly skewed" the funds towards "wealthy homeowners," with only 25 percent reaching "the poorer segments of the population."

What a guy.

Here's the plug from Standing with Mississippi.

Petition to Governor Barbour: Accept Stimulus MoneyMississippi

Center for Justice launches national online petition in favor of stimulus

Mississippi Center for Justice launched an online campaign, “Standing With Mississippi,” designed to inform Mississippians—and other friends around the country—about Governor Haley Barbour’s intended rejection of nearly $60 million in Unemployment Insurance benefits provided to Mississippi as part of the Federal stimulus package.

“Standing With Mississippi” encourages people to voice their support for providing every available dollar to Mississippians who have lost their employment through no fault of their own.

As the poorest state in the nation, Mississippi can least afford to put partisan politics ahead of people’s basic needs. Mississippi desperately needs its rightful share of the stimulus package. The money that Governor Barbour is rejecting will help 39,600 hardworking families weather this recession.

Supporters are encouraged to sign the petition and learn more at: http://www.StandingWithMississippi.org

The petition comes at a time when Governor Barbour has called a public meeting for April 16 to discuss the stimulus money. Mississippi Center for Justice believes hardworking Mississippians deserve every available resource to support their basic needs of food and shelter during such a difficult economic time.

There's a lot of good folks in Mississippi, sign the petition and help them out. Thanks.

Later.

I'm working on some right wing propaganda to show just how unbalanced the Right actually is, so stay tuned.

Just how stupid do you have to be to be a Republican? Global Currency, Michele Bachmann, Glenn Beck, Mary Fallin and GOP SOS Budget.

I don't know? Is it just a tenuous grasp of reality or is is just plain stupidity? Paranoia? Persecution complex? Superiority complex? Having Jesus talking in their heads 24 hours a day? The Right Wing Propaganda Machine? Analytically challenged? Greedy? No, that one's a gimme.

I mean just what is it that makes Republicans/Conservatives the way they are?

I sure as hell don't know. But I do know that there's plenty of evidence that something's wrong with them.

Just one example is Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN). She appeared on Glenn Beck's Paranoid r' Us show to brag about the great job that she's doing in stopping America's rush into the One World Currency crisis that is currently sweeping Right Wing Fantasy Land.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) appeared on Glenn Beck's TV show yesterday, to talk up her proposed constitutional amendment to stop the Obama administration from replacing the dollar with a global currency:

Bachmann boasted that she's picked up 30 cosponsors so far, to which Beck replied: "I can't believe that you've only got 30 cosponsors. I mean -- how is it you could walk around going, "I just -- this is just, hey, save the dollar.' And only 30 people are willing to say, 'Eh that sounds like a good thing, let's give that a shot.'"

OK, we have two supposedly educated adults here talking about something that's not even real. And to top it off, Bachmann has convinced 30 other supposedly educated adults to put their names on a public document to stop something that there's no such thing as.

What's even more amazing is that these indredibly, gullible freaks of nature have their own following of even more incredibly, gullible freaks who think that the rest of us who don't believe the crazy crap are stupid. And this is how the GOP and their base make fantasy policy.

The 30 genii that cosponsered Bachmann's "I'm so damned dumb that I don't know what's real" constitutional amendment proposal are: Whacked out nut jobs, I mean, are:

Todd Akin (R-MO), Spencer Bachus (R-AL), Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD), Judy Biggert (R-IL), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Paul Broun (R-GA), Henry Brown (R-SC), Dan Burton (R-IN), Michael Conaway (R-TX), John Culberson (R-TX), Mary Fallin (R-OK), John Fleming (R-LA), Virginia Foxx (R-NC), Phil Gingrey (R-GA), Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), Darrell Issa (R-CA), Walter Jones (R-NC), Steve King (R-IA), Mark Kirk (R-IL), Doug Lamborn (R-CO), Tom McClintock (R-CA), Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI), Ron Paul (R-TX), Joseph Pitts (R-PA), Bill Posey (R-FL), Tom Price (R-GA), David Roe (R-TN), John Shadegg (R-AZ), Glenn Thompson (R-PA), Zach Wamp (R-TN)

Now think about it. Wanting to amend the Constitution to prevent something that's not real from happening.

Oh yeah, Oklahoma's own Mary Fallin is a typical family values Republican. In 1998, in typical Oklahoma politics fashion Mary's state trooper bodyguard resigned after admitting to "unprofessional conduct”, but it had nothing to do with making the animal with two backs. Wink, wink, nod, nod. There was nothing more than a little hand holding and kissing, you know, like friends do. I never realized that the Republicans were such a friendly bunch.

Meanwhile Oklahoma's holier than thou Republican Governor Frank A. Keating who at the time was railing against Bill Clinton's "unprofessional conduct", said nothing. There's nothing quite like living in a Red State.

Back in the real world, the GOP trotted out their tired old sow and put some new lipstick on it and called it their budget plan today.

Later

Brit Hume and Joe the Plumber at the Media Research Center Confessional and Evan Bayh is Senator Strangelove.

OK, it's official. It's straight from the horse's ass, er, mouth.

Last night the euphemistically named Media Research Center gave Brit Hume of Fox News its “William F. Buckley Jr. Award for Media Excellence.”

Media Research Center is one of the right wing propaganda outfits that make sure that the peasants don't clue in on the fact that most of what they believe runs totally opposite to their own self interests. You know, "All things which are good come from the wealthy and large corporations." Yes, there are a lot of folks who believe just that.

Media Research Center was founded by Buckley's nephew Brent Bozell. Bozell makes out really well by confirming that the right wing garbage that the less attentive of us take for truth is, indeed, truth. You know, Iraq brought down the World Trade Center and Barack Obama is a covert Muslim terrorist and the anti-Christ. After all, he is a multi-tasker.

Brit said a lot if interesting things that night. One of the more humorous things was:

HUME: What are we getting?…We’re getting bloggers and websites and all sorts of individual entrepreneurs, and we have a vaster menu of choices today than we’ve ever had. But I think that we also have the danger that everything will be presented from one political viewpoint or the other, and that the media that confront us are going to be more partisan than ever — which means that the Media Research Center will have a mission for many years to come, and a good thing that is.

Brit's worried that the media will be more partisan than ever. Brit works for Fox News. Are you starting to see the irony? Thank God for His creation of Fox News to protect us from the truth.

Then Brit really let the cat out of the bag. Apparently Fox News research needs to go no farther than Media Research Center. In fact they don't even need to go that far, because Media Research Center comes to them.

HUME: I want to say a word, however, of thanks, to [MRC president] Brent [Bozell] and to the team at the Media Research Center and all the contributors who make that work there possible. […] also for the tremendous amount of material that the Media Research Center provided me for so many years when I was anchoring Special Report. I don’t know what we would have done without them. It was a daily, sort of a buffet of material to work from, and we — we — we certainly made tremendous use of it.

A buffet of bullshit and people keep coming back for more. Fox News, we repeat Media Research Center crap and you decide. It's just incredible the amount of people who have decided that they prefer bullshit.

It was a night of confessions. One man conservative think tank and emerging conservative leader Samuel Wurzelbacher, AKA Joe the Plumber, admitted to the crowd that rich white guys make him horny.

"God, all this love and everything in the room -- I'm horny," declared Joe.

Whether this will displace Jeff Gannon as the conservative's favorite male prostitute, only time will tell. My money's on Joe.

Joe went on to say:

"Unfortunately, we have a chairman up there who wants to redefine conservatism; he wants to make it hip hop, put it in a new package and sell it," Wurzelbacher said. "You can't sell principles; either you have them or you don't."

Poor Joe, he actually thinks that what conservatives have are principles.

Media Research Center's Anything But The Truth festival was a great success and a good time was had by all. The most often heard comment was "Hee, hee, hee, Joe said "horny"."

Meanwhile, in the real world, some Democrats after seeing how much fun the Republicans were having with their circular firing squad, decided that they wanted one too.

Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN) proclaimed today on MSNBC's Morning Joe the beginning of a new group of conservative Democrats that could work to block Obama's budget priorities.

Bayh and his colleagues have joined with Republicans to insist that the president gain a super-majority of 60 votes to pass any of his major reforms. Others warned the president not to use existing budget rules that require only a simple majority of 51 votes to pass either his clean energy or his health care reforms. Now, if the Moderate Dems Working Group votes alongside Republicans against Senate Democrats, they will be able to block Obama's major reforms, which need at least 60 votes to pass.

It looks like things are getting back to normal. The Republicans are taking the express to Right Wing Fantasy Land and some Democrats standing in line for their tickets.

Enjoy the weekend.

Later.

Journolist: Source of Right Wing Paranoia and Other Malidies.

I know it's been on HBO for more than a month and most of you have already seen it, but it fits.

If you haven't seen it, click on it for the schedule.

OK. When I heard about this, I was just a bit upset.

The left has moved into a secret email listserve where left-wing bloggers, policy guys, and journalists collaborate online to form news stories that inevitably skew to the left.

I mean, no one let me know about it.

So naturally I just thought that my input wasn't wanted. But remembering the source, it was from REDSTATE, one of the many sites that right wingers go to in order to get their neuroses validated. You know, "Yes, you have every reason to be paranoid." and for the persecution complexed, "Yes, white, male, conservatives are the most oppressed group in America." So, I thought that I would check into it before I sent my resignation to the Vast Left Wing Blogger/Liberal Media Conspiracy to Make Conservatives Look Like Slack Jawed Knuckle Draggers. The VLWBLMCMCLLSJKD and I have had a long and happy association and I hated to end it.

You've gotta admit that REDSTATE had an impeccable source.

i’m told otherwise. I am told, quite reliably I might add, that left wing bloggers and policy guys use this site as an express train to get their ideas into the mainstream media. And with sympathetic reporters who take the presuppositions made as truth, then add to those some original reporting, you have not an objective media, but a left wing echo chamber dominating print journalism and mainstream television journalism.

When you're told something, quite reliably, well hell, it has to be true.

It's not just REDSTATE, it's all over the right wing blogosphere now.

It all started with this article from Politico, JournoList: Inside the echo chamber. It appears to be a masterfully lame attempt to make a lot out of very little. You know, like Wall Street.

There actually is a JournoList. It's a list server operated by Ezra Klein, associate editor at The American Prospect. And this is what he has to say about the right wing hysteria.

As for sinister implications, is it "secret?" No. Is it off-the-record? Yes. The point is to create a space where experts feel comfortable offering informal analysis and testing out ideas. Is it an ornate temple where liberals get together to work out "talking points?" Of course not. Half the membership would instantly quit if anything like that emerged. There are no government or campaign employees on the list. More to the point, there are a number of folks who are straight news reporters and consciously eschew partisanship. Also, Erick Erickson writes:

I’m told such luminaries as David Shuster at MSNBC, Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, a host of New York Times magazine writers, Frank Rich, and others all collaborate on this list.I'm not sure who told him that.

Not one of those people is on Journolist. If they were, I imagine I'd get booked for more spots on Maddow. It is true that the list is center to left. That's not about fostering ideology but preventing a collapse into flame war. The emphasis is on empiricism, not ideology.

Honestly, Olbermann, Maddow and Rich, not a one of them are on Journalist. So this is obviously just another example of the Right's perceptions being, once again, greater than the sum of the problem. At least it's entertaining.

Later.

Southern Pride and Ignorance.

You know, being a redneck doesn't mean that you have to be ignorant.

Just because you're born a working class, white guy in a southern state doesn't mean that you have to be the lame caricature of the under educated, closed minded, Limbaugh listening doofus.

If you don't have all the things that your heart desires, it's not the fault of African Americans, immigrants, New Yorkers, Democrats or liberals. It's pretty much your own fault for believing the crap that's put out by the Right Wing Propaganda Machine.

That's right, those Republicans that you look to that are somehow going bring back those halcyon, antebellum days when all the white folks down south were wealthy and got the respect that they deserved. Dream on. It ain't going to happen.

If you're working your butt off for a less than living wage, chances are it's because of the way you vote. If you're voting for the person because they wave the flag and thump the Bible, because they wear a little flag in their lapel, because they blame someone else for your low wages, because the NRA tells you to, because they're white or because you're just too damned lazy to check the facts yourself, then you're screwing yourself and your family. In other words, you're proudly ignorant and see no reason to change.

That's no problem. It's a free country and I would fight for your right to stay blissfully ignorant. I mean, if you don't mind being played for a chump by the people you vote for, that's your business.

Cheap labor. Even more than race, it's the thread that connects all of Southern history -- from the antebellum South of John C. Calhoun and Jefferson Davis to Tennessee's Bob Corker, Alabama's Richard Shelby and the other anti-union Southerners in today's U.S. Senate.

It's at the epicenter of a sad class divide between a desperate, poorly educated workforce and a demagogic oligarchy, and it has been a demarcation line stronger than the Mason-Dixon in separating the region from the rest of the nation.

In their zeal to destroy unions and their hard-fought wage-and-benefits packages, the Southern senators could not care less that workers in their home states are among the lowest paid in the nation. Ever wonder why the South remains the nation's poorest region despite generations of seniority-laden senators and representatives in Congress?

The idea of working people joining together to have a united voice across the table from management scares most Southern politicians to death. After all, they go to the same country clubs as management. When Mississippi Republican Roger Wicker warned of Democratic opponent Ronnie Musgrove's ties to the "Big Labor Bosses" in this year's U.S. Senate race, he was protecting the "Big Corporate Bosses" who are his benefactors.

The South today may be more racially enlightened than ever in its history. However, it is still a society in which the ruling class -- the chambers of commerce that have taken over from yesterday's plantation owners and textile barons -- uses politics to maintain control over a vast, jobs-hungry workforce. After the oligarchy lost its war for slavery -- the cheapest labor of all -- it secured the next best thing in Jim Crow and the indentured servitude known as sharecropping and tenant farming. It still sees cheap, pliable, docile labor as the linchpin of the Southern economy.

Think about it.

Later

The Obama Budget, Lobbyists/Parasites in Overdrive and Capital Punishment.

The Obama budget is a radical departure from the budgets that we have been getting since Ronald Reagan. The Obama budget focuses on the inequity of wealth distribution that has grown over the last 30 years. In other words, it benefits us peasants, peasants being the folks who bust their butts at a 40 hour a week job for a paycheck that buys less and less as time goes by. At least the ones still lucky enough to have a job. So we should all be getting giddy and start dancing in the street, right?

Oddly enough there are those out there who are already getting apoplectic over the thought of the working class getting some slack. It's not so odd really considering that the most vehement objections are coming from long time government parasites.

Lobbyists Line Up to Torpedo Speech Proposals

Health Care, Agribusiness, Mining and Defense Groups Raise War
Chests to Sway Legislators and the Public

I'm sure the legislators will be more easily swayed than the rest of us, so keep an eye on them.

The folks on the Right have been putting the blame for the financial meltdown on Barney Frank, Bill Clinton and even Jimmy Carter. The Right of course, has very little grounding in reality or factual information. However, they are experts at convincing their followers in the truth of fairy tales.

Here's an example of what the Right would call a left wing fairy tale.

Both retired FBI officials asserted that the Bush administration was
thoroughly briefed on the mortgage fraud crisis and its potential to cascade out
of control with devastating financial consequences, but made the decision not to
give back to the FBI the agents it needed to address the problem. After the
terrorist attacks of 2001, about 2,400 agents were reassigned to
counterterrorism duties.

I've never proponent of the death penalty. For one thing we know that too many mistakes have been made. For another, I don't really like the idea of a government being able to legally kill it's own citizens.

Some states may be doing away with capital punisment, not on any moral grounds but on financial ones.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — When Gov. Martin O'Malley appeared before
the Maryland Senate last week, he made an unconventional argument that is
becoming increasingly popular in cash-strapped states: abolish the death penalty
to cut costs.

The dollar will trump morals any time. Just ask any lobbyist.

Or you can ask some gun dealers.

The gun laws in the United States allow the sale of multiple
military-style rifles to American citizens without reporting the sales to the
government, and the Mexicans search relatively few cars and trucks going south
across their border.

What is more, the sheer volume of licensed dealers — more
than 6,600 along the border alone, many of them operating out of their houses —
makes policing them a tall order. Currently the A.T.F. has about 200 agents
assigned to the task.

Now if you would like to do something helpful before you start surfing the porn sites.

Have a good weekend.

Later

Annie Leonard and The Story of Stuff.

This is just too good not to get out there.

Click on the pic or go to The Story of Stuff.

Annie Leonard made this simple enough that even I could understand it.

It's the story of all the crap that we buy from cradle to grave. 20 minutes long, loaded with things that we need to know and entertaining all the way.

It's brilliant, watch it.

Later

Barack, You, Me and America Won Tonight.

I just watched the scene at Grant Park on television. Incredible.

I just want to thank Barack Obama and the rest of the country for wanting to make the effort to turn this country around.

I can't even describe the pride I feel right now.

And I have to say that John McCain's concession speech showed that he is probably a much better man than the one he portrayed during the campaign. Despite the boos from the crowd,

McCain looked better in defeat than he has at any time during the campaign.

It's the start of a new era. Let's try to make it a good one.

Later.

12/16/2010 Update

The McCain Lie Counter.

The Democratic party is actually starting to show some backbone. I know, it's hard to believe.

But they are taking on the McCain/Palin campaign lies with a site that keeps track of them.

Naturally all the lies have citations, it's not a right wing site.

The Democratic Party Lie Counter will come in handy between now and November if the McCain campaign continues on it's present course.

Pierre Tristam has a great essay on lies and why they work at Daytona Beach newsjournalonline.com, it's titled Flat-out lies finding a receptive audience in voters seeking denial. Here's some of it.

The McPalin campaign knows. No need for rumors and innuendoes. It flat-out lies. Repeats the lies. Then lies again when the lies are exposed. There's Palin's lie about the infamous Bridge to Nowhere: She campaigned for it, then kept the $223 million in federal tax dollars when Washington killed its support. Still, she keeps repeating her "thanks but no thanks" line rally after rally. There's Palin's lie about how "we began a nearly $40 billion natural gas pipeline to help lead America to energy independence," as she told the Republican convention, even though not an inch of that pipeline has been built, not an inch will be built for years, and it may never be built at all. There's Palin's lie about being an ethical reformist even though she thought nothing of billing taxpayers for 312 nights spent at home, at $60 a night, on days she commuted 45 minutes to her governor's office in Anchorage.
Then there's McCain's fantasies about balancing the budget while cutting taxes, fighting wars and "changing the tone of Washington" while slandering Barack Obama's darkish background. It's what Justice William Brennan once defined, in a different context, the reckless disregard for the truth.
But to succeed, deception needs a receptive audience. It needs the incurious, the unquestioning, the toadying. The effectiveness of the lies, in a year when comatose fleas should capably beat the shrewdest Republican, is telling -- not about the candidates' venality, but about the electorate's want: This isn't an election about change. It's an election about extending the denial that made the last eight years possible. Many Americans, maybe most, want to convince themselves that America's moral authority and example is undiminished despite the last eight years. (And who can blame them? Who doesn't wish it weren't so?) The last thing those brave Americans want is change. They want leadership that validates their delusion. Palin-McCain is their narcotic bridge to nowhere.

I've been "debating" right wingers lately and that last paragraph is so true. These people are convinced that Democrats are anti-American and in league with Osama bin Laden, really.

It's time to get serious about your politics, our country is at stake.

Later