I am on the left politically but I do not subscribe to the belief that all conservatives or Republicans are dummies. This country needs an active, articulate discourse. We don't have that now.
The problem for the GOP is that there is no real leadership. Instead they have figureheads offering litmus tests, joiners instead of leaders and those engaging in the useless game of gotcha. Gone are those who reached across the aisle to move the country forward, replaced by evangelicals and ideologues who would make Nixon and Reagan blush in embarrassment. Romney, Ryan, Cantor and others are toadying up to these folks, hoping to catch their support while offering NOTHING of substance (eg, the Republican health care plan).
And the yawn inspiring Sarah Palin? Reminds me of Kozinski's Chauncy Gardiner in Being There. There's no "there" there. Watch her supporters and realize celebrating Sarah is a celebration of stupidity and the triumph of know nothings. Ron White is right: you can't fix stupid.
Very sad in deed.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Joe Wilson
It is about race. And I think Maureen Dowd had it right.
What Joe Wilson meant to say was: "You lie, boy!"
What is absolutely shocking to me is that no one has stepped up on the GOP side to express any form of indignation or disgust. Apparently this is now acceptable standard operating procedure.
And the media, in a pathetic effort to be objective and neutral, gives equal weight to those like the thoroughly inept and inconsequential Michael Steele who know exactly what is going on, who stand by and say nothing and then pounce with the classic Republican retort, charges of playing the race card.
There’s no “two sides” of a story with racism. People who behave badly need to be CONFRONTED with the consequences of their actions, which I why I supported any form of censure on Wilson. And on the South Carolina Republican who likened Michelle Obama to monkeys. And the many other instances of Republicans intimating racism while simultaneously denying it.
Anyone denying that the level of anger and invective directed at Obama from the right wing is race related is deluding themselves. And they are part of the problem…
What Joe Wilson meant to say was: "You lie, boy!"
What is absolutely shocking to me is that no one has stepped up on the GOP side to express any form of indignation or disgust. Apparently this is now acceptable standard operating procedure.
And the media, in a pathetic effort to be objective and neutral, gives equal weight to those like the thoroughly inept and inconsequential Michael Steele who know exactly what is going on, who stand by and say nothing and then pounce with the classic Republican retort, charges of playing the race card.
There’s no “two sides” of a story with racism. People who behave badly need to be CONFRONTED with the consequences of their actions, which I why I supported any form of censure on Wilson. And on the South Carolina Republican who likened Michelle Obama to monkeys. And the many other instances of Republicans intimating racism while simultaneously denying it.
Anyone denying that the level of anger and invective directed at Obama from the right wing is race related is deluding themselves. And they are part of the problem…
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Glenn Beck, Moron
I like the idea of the conservatives having to deal with their own resident lunatic. Glenn Beck is a classic 12 stepper, painfully and publicly recovering from whatever consumes him at the moment.
He is a little short in the intelligence department. Several months ago he called President Barack Obama a racist. A few weeks back he spent the better part of his show connecting Obama to the word “oligarchy”. Unfortunately for Beck and his production staff, they misspelled it and never once noticed it during the course of the show.
Then there’s his million mad men march of teabaggers in Washington for which he didn't even bother to appear (apparently Beck didn’t know the sexual reference of teabagging), his laughably high crowd estimate from the University of “I don’t know” to his co-opting Yom Kippur for Fox viewers not familiar with the Jewish Day of Atonement.
Today Keith Olberman ridiculed Beck's laughably inept understanding of the US Constitution, specifically Article 1, Section 9, Clause 1 which reads: "The migration or importation of such persons as any of the states now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year One thousand eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation not exceeding ten dollars each person."
Glenn Beck got this wrong and in a big way. For Beck this was somehow a confirmation that the founding fathers "actually put a price tag on coming to this country: $10 per person. Apparently they felt like there was a value to being able to live here. Not anymore. These days we can't ask anything of immigrants--including that they abide boy our laws."
Seriously. Glenn Beck confuses a tax on slaves for a price tag that he thinks the founding fathers somehow put on immigrants for the benefit of living here.
Yes people he really is that stupid.
Beck is an affirmative action hire, employed first by CNN and now Fox, to give even more conservative spin from the windbag pundit class.
The problem is not only that Beck is a dolt. It is that he offers untruths and lies to support his over-the-top analysis.
President Barack Obama is a racist? Really?
As the comedian Ron White says, you can't fix stupid.
He is a little short in the intelligence department. Several months ago he called President Barack Obama a racist. A few weeks back he spent the better part of his show connecting Obama to the word “oligarchy”. Unfortunately for Beck and his production staff, they misspelled it and never once noticed it during the course of the show.
Then there’s his million mad men march of teabaggers in Washington for which he didn't even bother to appear (apparently Beck didn’t know the sexual reference of teabagging), his laughably high crowd estimate from the University of “I don’t know” to his co-opting Yom Kippur for Fox viewers not familiar with the Jewish Day of Atonement.
Today Keith Olberman ridiculed Beck's laughably inept understanding of the US Constitution, specifically Article 1, Section 9, Clause 1 which reads: "The migration or importation of such persons as any of the states now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year One thousand eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation not exceeding ten dollars each person."
Glenn Beck got this wrong and in a big way. For Beck this was somehow a confirmation that the founding fathers "actually put a price tag on coming to this country: $10 per person. Apparently they felt like there was a value to being able to live here. Not anymore. These days we can't ask anything of immigrants--including that they abide boy our laws."
Seriously. Glenn Beck confuses a tax on slaves for a price tag that he thinks the founding fathers somehow put on immigrants for the benefit of living here.
Yes people he really is that stupid.
Beck is an affirmative action hire, employed first by CNN and now Fox, to give even more conservative spin from the windbag pundit class.
The problem is not only that Beck is a dolt. It is that he offers untruths and lies to support his over-the-top analysis.
President Barack Obama is a racist? Really?
As the comedian Ron White says, you can't fix stupid.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Short Bits...Health care conversations
Healthcare has been an issue since the Truman era and no one has had the guts to really take on the insurance and pharmaceutical industries which control health care. It is a for profit industry and while CEOs can bank $12 million per year, 45 million Americans are not covered. Instead of looking for anecdotal evidence on how bad the English,French or Canadian systems are, why not go talk to some of the 45 million? Each of these three systems is superior to ours. And the evidence suggests that the respective citizenry is happy with their health care. Hell, Twitter in the UK was shut down two weeks ago by NHS supporters protesting the lies perpetuated by the American right in this debate. Per capita, their health care is superior to ours. That is not a debatable point--we rank 38th in the world--but go ahead and look for anecdotes. I prefer to live in the real world and look for serious solutions to a very complex problems. Slogans like "socialist" or Obama-care mean shit to me.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Short Bits...
David Broder
In his July 5 column, David Broder called for "bipartisanship"--something he rarely if ever called for during the Bush Administration but he also took the opportunity to take a cheap shot at Senator Al Franken: "Now that the Minnesota Supreme Court has ended the long count on the 2008 Senate race by awarding the seat to Al Franken, Democrats -- at least on paper -- have the power to pass whatever bills they want, without a single Republican vote. Nothing would be a bigger mistake.
"Franken, the loud-mouthed former comedian (Broder's words), will be the 60th member of the Senate Democratic caucus -- just enough for them to cut off any filibuster threat if they can muster all their members...
"Yet that would not only contradict President Obama's promise to change the partisan climate in Washington but would also entail unnecessary risks to Obama's ambitious policy goals..."
Al Franken is hardly a clown. He is a Harvard graduate who has pretty much succeeded in everything thing he has attempted in his life, whether it be actor, writer, radio commentator and now politician. He is also a bit of a nerd and a guy who scored 800 on his math SATs (a perfect score inthose days). I wonder how many of his critics can match his intellect?
Broder would not be among them.
Unfortunately this "fog of rhetoric" from Broder speaks volumes on how inept this once good reporter has become. I certainly don't mind that he may or may not be a conservative. What is truly troubling is his apparent inability to understand what is going on. He was wrong on Ted Stevens, wrong to suck up to Karl Rove, wrong on George Bush "regaining his footing", wrong on torture and the Bush Administrations justification there of, wrong to attack Obama just days after he took office (and in at least one instance, even before) and so much more.
Broder is the curmudgeon who can neither see nor hear but doesn't allow either condition to prevent him from offering an opinion.
That anyone takes him seriously (other than the Ann Coulter crowd) is a mystery to me. But then again so is what has happened to that once great newspaper, the Washington Post...
The Liz Cheney Show
The sad part about the Liz Cheney show is that, other than Lawrence O'Donnell, virtually no one on mainstream televisionchallenges her. They are ill prepared or ill equipped--neither of which is acceptable. So when she lies, it goes unquestioned.
For example, her recent contention on CNN with Anderson Cooper that the unreleased CIA documents support her father is absurd. We KNOW she has not seen them. Yet no one questions her about this. So exactly how does she know? From her father? The man who said Iraq would be a cake walk and that we would be greeted as liberators? That lying moron?
The other contentions which go unchallenged do nothing the interests of the ill informed and the neo cons who got us into this mess in the first place. It is incumbent on journalists to do their homework and be prepared. Almost have failed miserably.
Frank Gaffney
Also in the news is Frank Gaffney, rightwing commentator for the Moonie newspaper Washington Times. Frank Gaffney is one taco short of a combination plate. He is an intellectual lightweight, a protege of the coward and dishonest Richard Perle.
Gaffney wrote a June 9th column reviewing President Obama's speech in Cairo and then suggested Obama is indeed a Muslim. His evidence? None, other than this: “there is mounting evidence that the president not only identifies with Muslims, but actually may still be one himself.” Huh?
It gets better: “Mr. Obama referred four times in his speech to ‘the Holy Koran,’” he “established his firsthand knowledge of Islam,” and he uttered the phrase “peace be upon them” when referring to Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed.
Gaffney clearly dislikes the POTUS but his arguments are just a little lame. In October 2008, Gaffney questioned whether then Senator of Illinois Barack Obama is a "natural born citizen of the United States" and his legal eligibility to be president.
In a February 2009 Washington Times column, Gaffney accused President Obama of "embracing the agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood," a militant organization banned throughout the Middle East.
In April 2009, Gaffney appeared on television and accused President Obama of using coded language to indicate that America would submit to Sharia law.
His views beyond President Obama are equally dubious: in March Gaffney tried to connect Sadamn Hussein and the 1993 WTC bombing and the Oklahoma City bombing. His evidence? None.
In 2003, Gaffney called on the United States military to "take out" the Al Jazeera news network for inciting violence against the Western world by showcasing Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein's "calls-to-arms."
In Dec 2008 Gaffney defended Cheney and the Bush Administration's argument claiming WMD and for the Iraq war. He said, "It is regrettable that they had to die, but I believe they did have to die. The danger was inaction could have resulted in the death of a great many more Americans than 4,000. And that's the reason I'm still delighted that we did what we did."
Gaffney is a former Reagan administration official who got his start working under Perle. He is an over-the-top neoconservative hardliner whose favorite word is "Islamofascists". Like his mentor Perle, there is no record of Gaffney ever serving in the US military thgough hew is of age to have served in Vietnam and later conflicts.
Gaffney is a classic neo con. He lies. He makes stuff up. He repeats his lies and expects you to believe him. He wonders why no one takes him seriously. Why any serious journal bothers to talk to this clown is beyond me.
You can't fix stupid.
In his July 5 column, David Broder called for "bipartisanship"--something he rarely if ever called for during the Bush Administration but he also took the opportunity to take a cheap shot at Senator Al Franken: "Now that the Minnesota Supreme Court has ended the long count on the 2008 Senate race by awarding the seat to Al Franken, Democrats -- at least on paper -- have the power to pass whatever bills they want, without a single Republican vote. Nothing would be a bigger mistake.
"Franken, the loud-mouthed former comedian (Broder's words), will be the 60th member of the Senate Democratic caucus -- just enough for them to cut off any filibuster threat if they can muster all their members...
"Yet that would not only contradict President Obama's promise to change the partisan climate in Washington but would also entail unnecessary risks to Obama's ambitious policy goals..."
Al Franken is hardly a clown. He is a Harvard graduate who has pretty much succeeded in everything thing he has attempted in his life, whether it be actor, writer, radio commentator and now politician. He is also a bit of a nerd and a guy who scored 800 on his math SATs (a perfect score inthose days). I wonder how many of his critics can match his intellect?
Broder would not be among them.
Unfortunately this "fog of rhetoric" from Broder speaks volumes on how inept this once good reporter has become. I certainly don't mind that he may or may not be a conservative. What is truly troubling is his apparent inability to understand what is going on. He was wrong on Ted Stevens, wrong to suck up to Karl Rove, wrong on George Bush "regaining his footing", wrong on torture and the Bush Administrations justification there of, wrong to attack Obama just days after he took office (and in at least one instance, even before) and so much more.
Broder is the curmudgeon who can neither see nor hear but doesn't allow either condition to prevent him from offering an opinion.
That anyone takes him seriously (other than the Ann Coulter crowd) is a mystery to me. But then again so is what has happened to that once great newspaper, the Washington Post...
The Liz Cheney Show
The sad part about the Liz Cheney show is that, other than Lawrence O'Donnell, virtually no one on mainstream televisionchallenges her. They are ill prepared or ill equipped--neither of which is acceptable. So when she lies, it goes unquestioned.
For example, her recent contention on CNN with Anderson Cooper that the unreleased CIA documents support her father is absurd. We KNOW she has not seen them. Yet no one questions her about this. So exactly how does she know? From her father? The man who said Iraq would be a cake walk and that we would be greeted as liberators? That lying moron?
The other contentions which go unchallenged do nothing the interests of the ill informed and the neo cons who got us into this mess in the first place. It is incumbent on journalists to do their homework and be prepared. Almost have failed miserably.
Frank Gaffney
Also in the news is Frank Gaffney, rightwing commentator for the Moonie newspaper Washington Times. Frank Gaffney is one taco short of a combination plate. He is an intellectual lightweight, a protege of the coward and dishonest Richard Perle.
Gaffney wrote a June 9th column reviewing President Obama's speech in Cairo and then suggested Obama is indeed a Muslim. His evidence? None, other than this: “there is mounting evidence that the president not only identifies with Muslims, but actually may still be one himself.” Huh?
It gets better: “Mr. Obama referred four times in his speech to ‘the Holy Koran,’” he “established his firsthand knowledge of Islam,” and he uttered the phrase “peace be upon them” when referring to Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed.
Gaffney clearly dislikes the POTUS but his arguments are just a little lame. In October 2008, Gaffney questioned whether then Senator of Illinois Barack Obama is a "natural born citizen of the United States" and his legal eligibility to be president.
In a February 2009 Washington Times column, Gaffney accused President Obama of "embracing the agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood," a militant organization banned throughout the Middle East.
In April 2009, Gaffney appeared on television and accused President Obama of using coded language to indicate that America would submit to Sharia law.
His views beyond President Obama are equally dubious: in March Gaffney tried to connect Sadamn Hussein and the 1993 WTC bombing and the Oklahoma City bombing. His evidence? None.
In 2003, Gaffney called on the United States military to "take out" the Al Jazeera news network for inciting violence against the Western world by showcasing Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein's "calls-to-arms."
In Dec 2008 Gaffney defended Cheney and the Bush Administration's argument claiming WMD and for the Iraq war. He said, "It is regrettable that they had to die, but I believe they did have to die. The danger was inaction could have resulted in the death of a great many more Americans than 4,000. And that's the reason I'm still delighted that we did what we did."
Gaffney is a former Reagan administration official who got his start working under Perle. He is an over-the-top neoconservative hardliner whose favorite word is "Islamofascists". Like his mentor Perle, there is no record of Gaffney ever serving in the US military thgough hew is of age to have served in Vietnam and later conflicts.
Gaffney is a classic neo con. He lies. He makes stuff up. He repeats his lies and expects you to believe him. He wonders why no one takes him seriously. Why any serious journal bothers to talk to this clown is beyond me.
You can't fix stupid.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
The Declaration of Independence...
Today is the 4th of July, Independence day. Sarah Palin resigned. The war in Iraq and Afghanistan rages on. Many American are struggling with a faltering economy and lacking basic essentials including health care. Gay and lesbian Americans are fighting for both the right to serve in our military or the right to wed. Immigration has become a wedge issue, polarizing some Americans against others. This holiday weekend always serves to remind me that this democracy is a work in progress, that we sometimes err or encounter obstacles as we make our slow but steady march forward.
This march forward is ground in the Declaration of Independence, perhaps the most important document in American history. What Thomas Jefferson wrote in about a week in 1776 document represents what one historian--whose names escapes me--called "the closest thing to the magic words of American history. Those are the words that all Americans at some very very important level believe in... they are the essential words of the American creed".
Jefferson himself called it an expression of the American mind as he unleashed this document at the world. Within that document, these four sentences in particular still resonate, still inspire and represent the American spirit.
"We hold these truths to be self evident ...
"...that all men are created equal...
"... that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights...
"...that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness..."
Historian Joseph Ellis noted that Jefferson's genius was to assert them at a level of abstraction where they have a kind of rhapsodic inspirational quality and we all agree not to notice that they are unobtainable or that they are mutually exclusive and unobtainable.
But it was Harvard historian Daniel Boorstin who offers me the most comfort and hope as he explained the value, importance and relevance of the document. Jefferson "said that here in this place, the happiness of the human race may advance to an indefinite though not to an infinite degree. He expresses optimism and yet he refuses to be a utopian.
"And I think what distinguished our kind of society and the Jeffersonian view of our society from other is that is is not ideological. It is not stuck in the prism of some dogma but rather is constantly responding to the changes in the world and Thomas Jefferson was the apostle of that experience."
Like our democracy, the Declaration of Independence is alive and evolving--something those create obstacles in our path, those who say no in lieu of real discourse, those who claim to be the real patriots while they go about the business of denying other Americans the rights and freedoms intimated by this document might want to well remember and consider on this very special day.
This march forward is ground in the Declaration of Independence, perhaps the most important document in American history. What Thomas Jefferson wrote in about a week in 1776 document represents what one historian--whose names escapes me--called "the closest thing to the magic words of American history. Those are the words that all Americans at some very very important level believe in... they are the essential words of the American creed".
Jefferson himself called it an expression of the American mind as he unleashed this document at the world. Within that document, these four sentences in particular still resonate, still inspire and represent the American spirit.
"We hold these truths to be self evident ...
"...that all men are created equal...
"... that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights...
"...that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness..."
Historian Joseph Ellis noted that Jefferson's genius was to assert them at a level of abstraction where they have a kind of rhapsodic inspirational quality and we all agree not to notice that they are unobtainable or that they are mutually exclusive and unobtainable.
But it was Harvard historian Daniel Boorstin who offers me the most comfort and hope as he explained the value, importance and relevance of the document. Jefferson "said that here in this place, the happiness of the human race may advance to an indefinite though not to an infinite degree. He expresses optimism and yet he refuses to be a utopian.
"And I think what distinguished our kind of society and the Jeffersonian view of our society from other is that is is not ideological. It is not stuck in the prism of some dogma but rather is constantly responding to the changes in the world and Thomas Jefferson was the apostle of that experience."
Like our democracy, the Declaration of Independence is alive and evolving--something those create obstacles in our path, those who say no in lieu of real discourse, those who claim to be the real patriots while they go about the business of denying other Americans the rights and freedoms intimated by this document might want to well remember and consider on this very special day.
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