Rush and Newt are winning? When I first read that title by E.J. Dionne in the Washington Post, I was puzzled. Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich winning? If anything their over-the-top antics have mostly backfired. In their attempts to paint President Barack Obama as a socialist, un-American and the dangerous "black other," they have mostly managed to alienate themselves and their party. Obama's approval rating remains high and most seem pleased, or at least comfortable, with his overall performance. So I wasn't certain what Dionne could have meant. If anything, Rush and Newt appear to be losing. But after reading his article, I was left wondering if perhaps Dionne didn't have a good point.
Read more below...
Since the beginning of his presidency, we have been held hostage to acts of reckless stupidity from the GOP and its surrogates. From FOX News to Glenn Beck to Rush Limbaugh, the right-wing noise machine has been consistent with its outlandish reactionary attacks. In the face of this the GOP has been either silent or subservient, turning themselves into willing accomplices.
E.J. Dionne writes:The power of the Limbaugh-Gingrich axis means that Obama is regularly cast as somewhere on the far left end of a truncated political spectrum. He's the guy who nominates a "racist" to the Supreme Court (though Gingrich retreated from the word yesterday), wants to weaken America's defenses against terrorism and is proposing a massive government takeover of the private economy. Steve Forbes, writing for his magazine, recently went so far as to compare Obama's economic policies to those of Juan Peron's Argentina.
The charges and accusations have been so absurd, so beyond the pale, that conservative politics and criticism has seemingly degenerated into a freak show. The problem is that where there are freaks, you can be certain our national media will follow.
Always one for sensationalism rather than substance, each and every charge hurled by the reactionary right-wing makes it into the corporate media cycle. That these criticisms are usually ludicrous and often wholly baseless doesn't seem to matter. Rush Limbaugh could claim Obama had three heads--rest assured mainstream media would trumpet his claim and have on talking heads to debate the number of heads the President has, and how this affects beltway politics.
Entertaining these claims not only reduces serious journalism to the level of the National Enquirer, as Dionne points out it stifles and obscures real substantive discussion regarding the Obama administration's policy decisions. Namely he points out that while the media is fixated on the freak show, and in turn forces Americans to gawk at the bizarre GOP circus, they ignore criticisms such as those leveled by progressives at a recent gathering: While the right wing's rants get wall-to-wall airtime, you almost never hear from the sort of progressive members of Congress who were on an America's Future panel on Tuesday. Reps. Jared Polis of Colorado, Donna Edwards of Maryland and Raul Grijalva of Arizona....why are their voices muffled when they raise legitimate concerns, while Limbaugh's rants get amplified? Isn't Afghanistan a more important issue to debate than a single comment by Judge Sonia Sotomayor about the relative wisdom of Latinas?
There is also more at work here. By narrowing the discussion over President Obama's policies to fanatical critics like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, media outlets are giving Americans a false choice--either side with the moderate, liberal-leaning but centrist White House administration, or join the shouting chorus at the freak show. The voices of those in the progressive camp, who offer both praise and criticism of policies that range from the escalation of the Afghan war to health care, are left mute. Ironically this benefits no one more than the Obama administration, who can make their moderate centrism look progressive--especially when even the slightest move to the left is met with screams of socialism. No wonder many Democratic strategists welcome the GOP freakouts. Perhaps it's about time all of us--from the corporate media machine to the Democratic establishment to everyday progressives--stopped giving so much airtime, blog time and print space to the circus performers of the right-wing, and realize there are more legitimate voices that have yet to be heard.
E.J. Dionne's full article here.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Rush & Newt Are Winning?
Monday, May 4, 2009
The Other 100 Days
Much ado and fanfare has been made of Obama's first 100 days, with news specials and much analysis. But there's been hardly a blip about the 100 days of the so-called "opposition party." The last 100 days of the GOP have been at times more entertaining and spectacular than anything that has come out of the Obama White House. The lunacy at CPAC. Rush Limbaugh as the leader of the Republican Party. The bizarre figurehead who thinks he's the self-declared "Hip Hop" leader of the party. Bobby Jindal's dismal rebuttal speech. Sarah Palin, who won't ever go away. GOP Governors who won't take federal money to help their constituents. Never-ending obstructionism. Texas governor Rick Perry threatening secession. Teabag Protests. Arlen Specter. And that's for starters! These past 100 days for the Republicans have been an interesting reality show. Get your popcorn and tune in for what the next 100 might bring.
William Rivers Pitt at Truthout examines this chaotic dance in full after the fold...
The Other 100 Days
Sunday 03 May 2009
by: William Rivers Pitt, t r u t h o u t Columnist
I will not speak with disrespect of the Republican Party. I always speak with respect of the past.- Woodrow Wilson
President Obama marked the 100th day of his term with a prime time press conference on Wednesday night, during which he highlighted a few key accomplishments while reminding the American people that he has quite a lot of crazy crap to deal with. A swine flu outbreak tickling the pandemic edge, an economy still hemorrhaging jobs and money, a ballooning deficit, bad banks, a new eruption of violence in Iraq, an ongoing war in Afghanistan, a looming war and a shaky government in Pakistan, and a bunch of very strange people waving tea bags and yelling about Lord only knows what, because they sure didn't. I got this, Obama seemed to be saying, but damn.
The "100 Days" benchmark is a relic from the first trimester of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal reform push, and is for the most part a meaningless milestone used primarily by news media types to fill air time and column inches. Still, the Obama administration can lay claim to a series of important victories, with more still to come if he keeps the wind at his back. The poll numbers are universally positive, and the American people seem willing so far to be patient and give the process time to play out.
For the Republican Party, however, the last 100 days have been something out of a Roger Corman flick: blood on the walls, body parts everywhere, lots of screaming and no plot to speak of. The last 30 months have brought a litany of disasters for the GOP - electoral wipeouts in '06 and '08, a poisoned party "brand," mass voter defections to the Democrats, the total repudiation of their whole ideological slate, and an ex-president about as popular as the mumps - culminating with a run of incidents since the inauguration so unutterably bad as to beggar likeness.
Rest of article here.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Specter's Party Moves
Senator Arlen Specter's decision yesterday to defect from the GOP to the Democratis is causing ripples across the American political spectrum. While Republican leaders tried to brush it off as a tempest in a teapot, they were mostly unsuccessful as Specter's party switch dominated the political news and will likely continue to do so for days to come. But in the end, what's the significance?
For Specter, it may mean survival. His relectuance to support the past Bush adminsitration carte blanche or provide obstinate opposition of Obama's initiatives (Specter voted for the recent stimulus) has made him a target of the more extreme right-wing of the party. And recent polls have shown him being trounced in a head-to-head match up against challenger Pat Toomey, former president of the ultra-conservative Club for Growth. Facing possible defeat, it had been rumored Specter might run as an independent. He seemed however to have decided that a larger camp was the place to be. And as a Democratic challenger easily defeating Toomey has long been expected, Specter decided to become that challenger--keeping both his more moderate GOP constituents disillusioned with their party, and gaining Democratic support.
For the GOP, it is another in a long series of recent train wrecks. Specter, considered by most to be one of the few remaining Republican "moderates," was a voice to temper the more reactionary elements in the party. With his defection, the GOP edges closer to a balkanization of right-wing fringe ideology that is drifting further away from anything resembling mainstream popular American thought. For a party considered by most to be in disarray, this is a crushing embarrassment. More than likely however, there is apt to be more outrage from the GOP and their supporters, than any attempt to engage in a teachable moment.
For the Democrats, it is an inch closer to the magical "60-seat majority" in the Senate, once the inevitably of the Al Franken's torturously slow win in Minnesota is confirmed.
For President Obama it is another notch on the belt and a new shiny pin to place on the 100 Days hat.
And for the rest of us, it's a wonderful bit of schadenfreude.
But Specter's switch comes with it's own set of issues. Arlen Specter, while a moderate voice of sorts in the GOP, is not joinging the progressive wing of the Democratic party. His votes in the Senate during his long career show at most a mixed-bag. He's supported Stem Cell Research and Healthcare reform, but also helped authorize the Iraq War and blocked investigations into defense contracts. More recently, he's withdrawn his support on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) and has stated that this party switch does not mean he's revisiting that choice. This may cost him vital union support in Pennsylvania, and set up the possibility for a strong Democratic party challenger. Where Democratic officials, both local and in Washington DC, will weigh in is anybody's guess--but it's certain to cause some party fractures.
For more opinions on the Senator's big switch, see below:
What Kind of Democrat Will Specter Be?- NY Times
Specter's Switch- Chris Hayes, The Nation
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Teabagged Nation
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
After months of licking their collective wounds, and unable to accept the results of Nov. 4th, today the angry white masses took to the streets to declare their freedom from...sanity. Whipped into a furor by media hacks, a right-wing news channel, and a complicit GOP-Corporate smear machine, dozens and hundreds and in a few cases "allegedly" thousands, marched to declare their freedom from "tyranny" and "fascism"--and spew enough hate, incoherent rhetoric and babble to jump start a Palin rally. It seems, unable to win at the ballot box, they've decided to defeat the rest of America (the overwhelming majority) by inducing laughter.
But hey, it's a free country--or at least certainly more free today than it's been in the past eight years. So heck, if right-wingers want to open up the conservative loony-bins and let us gawk at the spectacle that spills out, why not.
More after the fold...
First off, these guys call themselves "teabaggers." That alone can start so much justly deserved juvenile snickering, it's a wonder some reporters can actually talk about it with a straight face.
Seeming to suffer from what some have rightly termed "grassroots envy," the GOP has decided if they can't get a popular groundswell of democratic support to emerge organically from their ranks, they'll just throw a lot of money, media resources and fake websites together to create one. Supposedly, the main concern of these teabaggers is that Obama is going to raise their taxes. Yet, every factual indication is that Obama's tax plans will provide a cut for everyone making under 250,000 a year. The only people who will see a significant increase are those in the top 10%, who will end up paying a tax rate still significantly lower than under Ronald Reagan. So either all these teabaggers are millionaires looking out for their own self-interest and greed, or they're really, really, really...DUMB.
Bernie Horn at Campaign for America's Future notes:Of course, the corporate organizers of the Tax Day Tea Party are neither ignorant nor mad. They have an agenda, but you have to dig a little to find it. Look at their Resources page. It takes you to “The Tool Kit for Tea Parties,” which is a few PDFs on a website called “American Solutions.”
And what are the principal solutions? Cut tax rates for the rich. Cut the corporate tax rate. Abolish the capital gains tax. Abolish the estate tax. Oh, and oppose the Employee Free Choice Act.
Wow! Who in the world is American Solutions? Why it’s Newt Gingrich’s organization. (Click here for a fine picture of Newt grinning like a Cheshire Cat.) The whole tea party scam is designed to push people toward the maddest, craziest, most irresponsible right-wing corporate agenda Gingrich could imagine. And—once again—the lower-income, right wing rank-and-file are just being played as suckers by the rich.
Pathetic.
Some video and photos of what this convergence of faux populism, manufactured irrational anger and ignorance has wrought.
Some background:
David Shuster on how Newt Gingrich, Dick Armey, right-wing financiers and FOX News cooked up the entire "teabagging:"
Twas' the night before Teabagging, and Keith Olbermann further exposed this manufactured "movement:"
Full frontal teabagging craziness:
Media Matters highlights FOX News bringing on the crazy:
Oh that's a gem. A definite keeper:
Straight to the point nuttiness. I respect that:
Crazy with an artistic flair:
Crazy with Photoshop skills:
Please, please, please... leave Jesus out of your teabagging:
Yeah. Because you know how Obama's really murdering babies? SCHIP.
Teabagging party or Gay Pride Parade?
No, seriously. Someone cue-up Diana Ross and get this guy a feather boa already:
Yeah. This unfortunately is where lunacy can become disturbing:
More gun violence threats with that tea:
Yes. That tactic worked well in the 08 elections. Keep pitching it:
That was almost some clever race-baiting. Almost:
Thanks to Dkos, Huffington Post and Media Matters for the material.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
GOP April Fool's Budget
So after their disastrous rollout last week, where GOP luminaries brazenly put out a budget devoid of any numbers, they've decided to try again. Deciding that competing with the media spectacle of a popular and confident president meeting with the world's robber-barons...umm...I mean 20 strongest economies...to confront the global fiscal crisis (complete with photo-ops with world leaders and royal figures) wasn't enough of a challenge, the GOP decided to try their second hand at presenting an alternative budget plan on... April Fool's. Seriously, who can script this comedy?
More after the fold...
So what's in the budget? Oh, only a plan to privatize medicare, give tax-breaks to the rich, kill the popular (though probably under-funded) stimulus package and 1001 other things that have been tried and failed in the past. And did I mention that after all that belly-aching about deficits, this one will cost about $ 1 trillion?
To paraphrase Blade, some of these cats must enjoy trying to skate uphill.
Some reviews of the GOP's April Fool's Budget proposal...this time with numbers.Just in time for April Fools' Day, and in time for congressional debate on the Obama administration's non-pamphletized budget proposal, comes the "details" GOP members failed to supply last week. Virtually every element contained within is a bad rehash of all the failed Republican ideas from the last couple of decades. In short, it's like the return of a bad headache: smaller government, lower taxes, drill everything, and trust us.
--Williams Rivers Pitt "Fool's on the Hill." Truthout."...it was most appropriate that this thing came out on April Fools' Day because this thing is the biggest April Fools' Joke and cruelest that we have had in years. If you look at what they are doing ... they are calling for putting in a multi-trillion dollar additional tax cut for the highest income Americans, they are now talking about privatizing Medicare turning it into a voucher so that they can cut it substantially. That's not the reform of an entitlement - it is the gutting of a program."
--Austan Goolsbee, a member of Obama's Council of Economic Advisors. Read here.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
The GOP's Empty Budget
After three months of braying and posturing any fiscal policy out of the White House as "wasteful" or even "socialist," the GOP leadership (a contested title by all accounts), out to prove it is not just the "part of no," today finally released an alternative budget plan. Well... sort of:
Thursday's press conference given by House Republicans was expected to be the unveiling of the GOP budget proposal; but the document announced by Representative John Boehner(R-OH) turned out to be a simple blue-print of conservative values, lacking any real budget numbers.
Say what?
More after the fold...
According to the AP:
House Republicans have released their response to President Barack Obama's deficit-laden budget, but their glossy pamphlet offers little beyond campaign-style talking points. One of the few hard bits of information is a promise to simplify the tax code and cut income tax rates to 10 percent for people making $100,000 or less down. They also promise to cut domestic spending below current levels but don't say whether they are exempting Social Security. It's impossible to determine the projected deficit based on their offering.
So already branded as the "party of no," the GOP's grand strategy is to come up with a budget plan that not only offers no numbers, but rehashes Bobby Jindal-ish talking points (tax-cuts for the wealthy and trickle-down-economics) that helped them lose the last two major national elections? Classic.
With this gem of a pass, it wasn't hard for DNC spokesman Hari Sevugan to go for the three point shot:
"After 27 days, the best House Republicans could come up with is a 19-page pamphlet that does not include a single real budget proposal or estimate. While there had been talk that House Republicans were overriding their Senate counterparts to offer a budget alternative, it's clear after this announcement that neither of them have anything to offer but criticism."
Even their usual allies were left to scratch their heads in wonder:
"I was not the only reporter in the room during the delayed press conference who had expected to see some numbers," David Freddoso over at the conservative National Review commented, "at least ballpark."
And can you believe it gets better? Trying to fend off the questions that inevitably came with this lame rollout, the GOP has promised to unveil a more complete plan... on April 1st... that is, April Fool's Day.
Somebody let this mastadon sink into the tarpits already...
More from Keith Olbermann below:
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
The Party of Limbaugh- II
Lightening actually struck twice! It was just over a month ago that a Georgia Congressman after bravely confronting radio host Rush Limbaugh, quickly backtracked and gave an apology. Now it seems it's RNC chair Michael Steele who has come back to grovel at the feet of Limbaugh, and beg forgiveness.
More after the fold...
Max Blumenthal at The Nation writes:When Rush Limbaugh basked in the CPAC spotlight for more than an hour and a half on February 28, drawing boisterous, sustained applause from conference attendees with a stemwinding speech reiterating his desire to see Obama "fail," Steele took action. The following evening, on CNN's D.L. Hughley show, Steele attempted to reassert control over the party. When Hughley referred to Limbaugh as "the de facto leader of the Republican Party," Steele shot back, "No, I'm the de facto leader of the Republican Party!" And he mocked Limbaugh as an "entertainer" whose behavior was "incendiary" and "ugly."
While conservative bloggers and radio talkers piled on, Limbaugh lashed out at Steele with a condescending on-air rant, barking at the chairman "to go behind the scenes and start doing the work that you were elected to do." Finding himself under fire from Rush's army of self-proclaimed "Dittoheads," Steele immediately sued for peace. "I went back at that tape and I realized words that I said weren't what I was thinking," Steele whimpered. "It was one of those things where I thinking I was saying one thing, and it came out differently. What I was trying to say was a lot of peoplewant to make Rush the scapegoat, the bogeyman--and he's not."
What the hell? Does Rush have the One Ring? What makes it all the worse is that Michael Steele is the first "black" chairman of the RNC. As if it isn't bad enough that he hustles the usual "black conservative" diatribe, now he's actually letting Rush Limbaugh--a man with a history of racially insensitive and downright racist comments--browbeat him into submission. What next? Rush going to call him "boy?"
When President Obama and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel joked that Rush Limbaugh was the voice of the Republican Party, it was just a slick tactic. But these guys are going out of their way to show that assessment was right on the mark. I knew the GOP was going to implode after Nov. 4th, but I didn't think the crackup would come this quickly and so bizarrely.
Max Blumenthal's full article below:
Top Republican's Groveling Apology to Rush Limbaugh Is a Media Disaster
By Max Blumenthal, The Daily Beast
Posted on March 3, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/129862/
Former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele assumed the Republican National Committee's chair a month ago with great fanfare. The first African American elected to the position, Steele triumphed over a candidate who once belonged to a whites-only country club, and another who had distributed a CD that included the song, "Barack, the Magic Negro." Days after taking over the party's moribund infrastructure, Steele promised an "off the hook" PR campaign to apply conservative principles to "urban-suburban hip-hop settings"--offering the GOP a much-needed image makeover for the dawning of the age of Obama.
Hip-hop legend Russell Simmons hailed Steele's election in an open letter, assuring his friend, "The hip-hop community remains eager to hear the views of national leaders like you" But Simmons added a warning: "Don't let those who are angry in your base guide your choices or let the people to the left of President Obama push your buttons."
Of course, many of those to "the left of President Obama," including members of "the hip-hop community," greeted Steele's election with a collective yawn. Meanwhile, the RNC chairman made little noise at the 2009 Conservative Political Action Conference, with one exception that occurred only after he finished addressing a dinner banquet. He turned the mic over to Representative Michele Bachman of Minnesota. "You be da man! You be da man!" Bachmann repeatedly shouted to him. The awkward incident was among the evening's top stories on cable news shows, while Steele's jeremiad against Obama's stimulus package went almost unnoticed.
When Rush Limbaugh basked in the CPAC spotlight for more than an hour and a half on February 28, drawing boisterous, sustained applause from conference attendees with a stemwinding speech reiterating his desire to see Obama "fail," Steele took action. The following evening, on CNN's D.L. Hughley show, Steele attempted to reassert control over the party. When Hughley referred to Limbaugh as "the de facto leader of the Republican Party," Steele shot back, "No, I'm the de facto leader of the Republican Party!" And he mocked Limbaugh as an "entertainer" whose behavior was "incendiary" and "ugly."
Almost as soon as the broadcast ended, a firestorm of criticism erupted on the right-wing blogosphere. "It's not easy watching a black guy stumble around in the dark, but really, I'm trying," wrote Dan Riehl, a marketing manager who hosts the popular conservative blog, RiehlWorldView.com, in posting widely circulated on the right.
While conservative bloggers and radio talkers piled on, Limbaugh lashed out at Steele with a condescending on-air rant, barking at the chairman "to go behind the scenes and start doing the work that you were elected to do." Finding himself under fire from Rush's army of self-proclaimed "Dittoheads," Steele immediately sued for peace. "I went back at that tape and I realized words that I said weren't what I was thinking," Steele whimpered. "It was one of those things where I thinking I was saying one thing, and it came out differently. What I was trying to say was a lot of peoplewant to make Rush the scapegoat, the bogeyman--and he's not."
Steele's apology recalled a similar incident from late January, when Republican Representative Phil Gingrey of Georgia attacked Limbaugh for "throwing bricks" without paying the consequences. As I reported for the Daily Beast, Gingrey invited himself on Limbaugh's radio show the following day to grovel before the host. "I clearly ended up putting my foot in my mouth on some of those comments," the penitent congressman said.
But given Limbaugh's well-documented history of racial controversy, and Steele's position as the Republican Party's first African American chairman, his apology is more significant than Gingrey's. Limbaugh has, for example, mocked Obama as a "Halfrican-American" who should "become white;" he has called for a "posthumous Medal of Honor" for the assassin of Martin Luther King, Jr., James Earl Ray, and told an African American caller, "Take that bone out of your nose and call me back."
Steele's "off the hook" PR campaign is now off the rails. Within days, he has gone from being "da man" to just another "Dittohead."
Max Blumenthal is a Puffin Foundation writing fellow at the Nation Institute based in Washington, DC. Read his blog at maxblumenthal.blogspot.com.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
CPAC Looney Fest
While the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) has often been a gathering of delusion and right-wing quackery, this year's will probably go down as the looniest of them all. From a bouncing Rush Limbaugh mocking Vietnam veterans and once again calling for the failure of an American President, to former UN ambassador (appointed) John Bolton joking (to much audience laughter) about the nuking of an American city, it was a bizarre sight that can only be termed "a hot mess." Oh, let's not forget Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann's attempt at urban black face in her declaration to the first "black" RNC chair Michael Steele, "You be da man!"--as part of the GOP's declared "Hip Hop makeover." And I haven't even mentioned the presence of the unstable and deranged Ann Coulter! Perhaps the Young Turks had the acronym for CPAC right- Crazy People Are Coming. Oh yeah, speaking of which, Joe the Plumber was there...speaking...seriously.
I was going to blog longer on this, but thankfully Jon Stewart does it in a more succinct and funnier fashion than I ever could.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
That Jindal Rebuttal Speech...
I saw this train wreck coming as soon as it rounded the corner in that bizarre camera angle (what the frack was up with that?!?). Once he began speaking in that eerie voice and even more disturbing smile, I settled in for the hilarity and hijinks I knew would eventually ensue. So absolutely no further commentary needed. The frustrated talking heads of the conservative movement have said it all. Jindal as the GOPs rising star seems dismally doubtful. But the comedy his speech illicited is something to treasure. We as a nation, needed to laugh again.
More after the fold:
Friday, January 30, 2009
The Party of Limbaugh
Not one to waste time on conservative mouthpeices. So last week, when GOP shockjock posing as an intellectual Rush Limbaugh proclaimed to his gleeful dittoheads "I hope Obama fails," I ignored it. But the story, which made news headlines for its sheer absurdity, took an even more bizarre turn with the entrance of Republican Congressman Phil Gingrey of Georgia. Gingrey, reacting to criticism of the GOP Congress by Limbaugh, told the radiohost to back off.
More after the fold...“I mean, it’s easy if you’re Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh or even sometimes Newt Gingrich to stand back and throw bricks. You don’t have to try to do what’s best for your people and your party. You know you’re just on these talk shows and you’re living well and plus you stir up a bit of controversy and gin the base and that sort of that thing. But when it comes to true leadership, not that these people couldn’t be or wouldn’t be good leaders, they’re not in that position of John Boehner or Mitch McConnell."
Disagree with the GOP or not, many applauded Gingrey for having the backbone to stand up to Limbaugh. Alas, his fortitude was not to last. Within 24 hours, Gingrey was issuing a stated apology--to Rush Limbaugh!"“I regret and apologize for the fact that my comments have offended and upset my fellow conservatives—that was not my intent. I am also sorry to see that my comments in defense of our Republican Leadership read much harsher than they actually were intended, but I recognize it is my responsibility to clarify my own comments.”
Gingrey went as far as to appear on Rush Limbaugh's show, "hemming and hawing" before the radio host in the best "white steppin' fetchit" role I've ever heard. So to recap, a sitting Georgian elected member of Congress, rather than defending the President of the United States, has decided it's more important to beg for forgiveness from an entertainer.
The end of the GOP is nigh... .
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Republicans for Voldemort...
Okay, so it has all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. But this campaign ad makes up for it in pure humor. So, Why are YOU voting Republican?
I'm voting Republican because...
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Christian Zionists?- Scarier Than You Think!
And you were scared about Jeremiah Wright? Here's something to really keep you up at night- Pastor John Hagee and CUFI (Christians United for Israel). Unlike Wright, who was preaching a social gospel of defending the poor and defenseless, Hagee and CUFI call for pre-emptive strikes on Iran and global war on Islam that will draw in Israel and bring on Armageddon. And here's the kicker, they have the ear of the powerful, with not only Presidential candidate John McCain but numerous other GOP members (war hawks, neoconservatives, Israel hawks) running to kow-tow to them at every turn. Forget Jeremiah Wright, CUFI and Hagee are the REAL DEAL type of scary, and the ones you ought to be worried about.
Don’t know how many of you watch Bill Moyers, but you should--as it is one of the last bastions of journalistic integrity left in the media. In case you didn’t catch last week’s episode, please stop by and watch the whole expose on Pastor John Hagee, leader of CUFI (Christians United For Israel). A few weeks back, Hagee endorsed GOP Presidential candidate John McCain.
In the midst of media attention on Sen. Barack Obama’s ties (real and nebulous) to figures like Minister Louis Farrakhan or Pastor Jeremiah Wright, the link of much of the GOP to Pastor John Hagee is getting remarkably short thrift. While Hagee was described as an anti-Catholic bigot, whom McCain was later forced to distance himself from (partly), the news media wholly neglected to delve into his beliefs, and that of CUFI, in full. Hagee and his organization are at the forefront of what is known as the Christian Zionist Movement--who preach a mixture of political and spiritual support for Israel that is based on extremism, anti-Arabism, Islamaphobia, neo-conservative ideals of pre-emptive war and unbridled militarism. There is even a strong strain of anti-Semitism in their ideology, as part of their support for Israel is their idea of the role Jews must play in End Times prophecy--which will "allegedly" result in the mass death of most Jews, except for the ones who accept Jesus in the end.
Whoa! And the media is obsessed with a bunch of brothers in suits and bowties slanging bean pies? And of a preacher of a small congregation in Chi-town?
Forget anything you might hear about the "dangers" of Farrakhan for comments he made some 24 years ago, and has since recanted for (in his own way), or the "radical" view points of Jeremiah Wright---Pastor John Hagee and his Christian Zionist crew are the REAL DEAL type of scary, on a level that is beyond disturbing. Hagee and CUFI have the ear of the powerful, with not only John McCain but numerous other GOP members (war hawks, neoconservatives, Israel hawks) running to kow-tow to them at every turn, while their leader continually calls for pre-emptive strikes on Iran and the destruction of the entire Muslim world.
Watching Bill Moyers I half expected Hagee and his congregants to start "worshipping the bomb" like the radiation-disfigured mutants on the Planet of the Apes saga. One of them, a Lebanese Christian, sounded like a self-hating Arabic Ann Coulter--calling the Muslim world barbaric and without souls, words that are dangerously "exterminationist" in their rhetoric. But these guys don’t look like monsters. Instead, like the Cylons, they look just like us (they even got black folks!)--and more important still, they have a plan!
Peep the video and/or transcript in the link below. Or watch part 1 (of 5) from Youtube above. You can find the remaining video at: Hagee: Strike Iran 'for Israel' on Moyers - part 1 of 5
BILL MOYERS JOURNAL reports on the politically powerful group Christians United for Israel, whose leader, Pastor John Hagee recently endorsed John McCain for the presidency.
Bill Moyers: Christians United For Israel
Wednesday, October 4, 2006
THE GOP MELTDOWN
From the German, Schaden, "damage" + Freude, "joy."
A malicious satisfaction obtained from the misfortunes of others.
Four weeks away from Congressional elections, and the GOP elephant is looking like a mastodon in a tar pit. What's gone so wrong for the Republicans? And can the Democrats take advantage? Hmm… let's have a recap. Click anything in blue for more info!
President Bush's sinking poll numbers: Live by the village idiot, die by the village idiot. The Republicans in Congress made a Faustian pact some time ago, allowing George W. Bush and his authoritarian neo-con handlers to hijack their party, and marry it to the right-wing religious extremists. It was only a matter of time before that cabal began to turn the masses off. Bush's current job approval has dipped as low as 34%. To put things in perspective, that's about where President Richard Nixon's ratings were right before he resigned! A lot of Republicans are trying to flee that sinking ship, but they've entangled themselves into it so tightly, it's rather hard to disengage.
Iraq: Reports have showed that rather than the insurgency in that occupied country being in its "last throes," as Vice President Dick Cheney reported in 2005, it's picking up steam. US military deaths are nearing 2800—with over seventy happening just last month. Attacks on US troops are up. The number of wounded US troops—from illness to missing limbs to massive brain injuries—are well over 20,000. American bombs, including controversial chemical weapons like white phosphorous, and sectarian violence (another nice word for a proto Civil War) has left tens of thousands of Iraqi's dead, perhaps over 100,000! In fact, the latest news by the National Intelligent Estimate is that the Iraq debacle has helped create a more unstable world, and lit the fires for terrorism. Way to go… I guess pretensions of Empire are a lot harder than actually accomplishing the great Pax Americana.
Torture & Privacy: As if the horrors of Abu Gharib weren't enough, the Bush administration and their Republican allies have now passed bills on detainees that ignore the Geneva Conventions, and codify torture. In case you're uncertain about what torture is, here's a primer on waterboarding. Unlike agent Jack Bauer on 24, torture generally doesn't work. And worse still, with the new unprecedented detainee laws pushed by the Republican Congress and the President, allowing the government to suspend habeus corpus, rest assured that innocent people—yes, this may mean YOU—could easily be picked up, not charged, flown to some undisclosed spot and disappeared. If you're doubtful, maybe you haven't heard of Canadian Maher Arar—who was rendered to Syria, and tortured for 10 months (and by torture, we mean having his testicles sliced with razor blades and other "tough interrogation techniques"), all at the behest of the US, and released without so much as an apology when it was realized he was completely innocent. They've ignored privacy with numerous cases of illegal NSA wire-tapping all supposedly in the name of the War on Terror, taking us down the Orwellian road to big brother.
Corruption, Corruption, Corruption: From Representative Tom Delay's resignation, to that of Rep. Bob Ney, to the many tentacled Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal and over to the Valerie Wilson CIA leak, the GOP run Congress aren't just turning out to be a "do-nothing grouping," but one filled with a culture of criminal corruption. Ironically, when they stormed the legislature in Newt Gingrich's 1994 "Contract on America," it was to stamp out Democratic corruption. But a few unethically purchased postage stamps pales in comparison to this lot.
George Allen's Racist Mouth, and Past: Once a darling of the GOP, and a Presidential hopeful, Republican George Allen of Virginia can't seem to keep his foot out of his mouth, or his past buried. After referring to a worker in his opponent's camp by a racial slur, he later goes on to deny his Jewish heritage (as if it is a stain) before later embracing it, and is now embroiled in claims that he repeatedly used the n-word in the past, and (most bizarrely) once cut off a deer's head and stuffed it into a black family's mailbox as a type of hate crime. While this has sent shock waves through his campaign, considering that Allen during his high school years wore Confederate army pins and later kept a lynching noose in his law office, these latest acts and revelations shouldn't have really surprised anyone. To his one saving grace on race, Allen did introduce a symbolic bill in 2005 to officially apologize for the Senate's role in blocking antilynching legislation through decades of killings across the South. The question now however is whether such acts were sincere, or political jockeying.
Mark Foley and the "No Child's Behind Left Alone" Act: And then, just when the GOP thought perhaps they had scored a clever tactical victory with their detainee bill, a bombshell was dropped in the form of Republican Representative Mark Foley of Florida—who was forced to resign after sexually solicitous emails and IMs surfaced between himself and male teenage pages in Congress. The GOP is finding itself in disarray, with its members pointing fingers at each other, and even prominent conservatives demanding an investigation. Oh how the mighty have fallen.
Add in everything from the madness of Katrina to stagnating wages, and the Republican Party is running scared. Democrats need 15 seats to gain control over the House of Representatives. The Senate is also up for grabs. Now I don't think the Democrats are a panacea. There are too many problems with our consumerist Über-capitalist, globalist, militarist, neo-liberal, hegemonic society to be solved by any one party, who shares in those same depravities. However with the Democrats, we can start at least slowing down the mad dash off the cliff. And perhaps, like Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy said as he watched the GOP alter the Constitution to score political points, "in 40 days we can put an end to this nonsense."
