Our Breaking Political System

It is obvious to everyone. The US political system is breaking down. To some, it is already broken.

No one trusts politicians of either party - and with good reason. Congressional approval ratings are in the toilet and have been for a long time. The country is polarized into warring factions. No one will have a reasonable discussion with their opposition. Avarice, greed, fraud and corruption are the hallmarks of today’s political scene on all sides. Most people today wouldn’t trust the typical politician to watch their dog.

Dollars now decide most elections and large multi-national corporations spend lavishly to control politicians;  They sponsor and achieve legislation in their favor at the expense of everyone, and have become 'too big to fail monsters' in their own right;  Corporations are now ‘people’; legally, but, corporate political decisions are made by their CEO’s and board members who ruthlessly ignore the political wishes of many of their stockholders; ‘Freedom of Speech’ today means that dollars can and do vote, and very copiously at that. The environment and quality of life for all citizens suffers while corporations take advantage and fight any and all efforts at protections. The top leadership of corporations pay themselves at several hundred times the rates of their lowest paid employees;

Corporate kingpins live on an elevated plane, isolated from the problems they have willed for all others; They hide their wealth overseas while taking advantage of favorable legislation paid for with corporate dollars for their personal benefit; They fight tooth and nail against anything benefitting others while demanding further tax cuts for themselves; They engage in massive, expensive and duplicitous propaganda campaigns to enlist the help of the very people they economically control to protect their own special interests.

Big Money are deliberately employing hot button ‘red herring’ issues like abortion, immigration and homosexual life styles to divert, divide and control the electorate in political sleights-of-hand designed to cloak their true designs. If you doubt this, do a little research for yourself on the ALEC group.

‘Capital’ is now in political control in the US and much of the developed world for all intents and purposes. Capital is busily solidifying its grasp by whatever means will work for it. It is a classic and obvious case of ‘the ends justify the means’ from the standpoint of capital. But, since the system is breaking, it is also becoming seriously and increasingly out of balance. Things which are seriously out of balance can not sustain for long, and unless brought into equilibrium again, will end up destroying themselves and things around them. Guaranteed. It is not unlike a flywheel out of balance which if not repaired, will eventually disintegrate, tearing out its shroud, freezing its engine and bringing everything to a crashing and disastrous halt.

That’s precisely where we are today. The world is impacted by myriads of problems, from over-population, to global warming, to water shortages, wars, starvation, human diseases, lack of access to medical treatment, endangered food resources, to ‘ethnic cleansing’ and racial injustice, nuclear proliferation, and so on and on and on. Meanwhile, our systems for dealing with such problems has been captured, and their resources diverted to the further enrichment of empirical corporations and those who run them. Indeed, rich corporation often find things to their financial advantage to quietly ignore problems, or encourage things like warfare and disease. Keep one thing always in mind: The bottom line is the one and only thing that really actually matters to any large corporation.

One might think the rich could see where this is heading, and the danger that is in it for them. Several times in the world’s history similar situations have arisen on national levels, and the results have not been pretty for the people who were in control at the time. In fact, historically, this has always, without fail, resulted in oceans of bloodshed, followed by a ruthless retrenchment of society more draconian than the one it replaced. But, apparently our ultra-rich today are oblivious to history, or believe they are smart enough to maintain control forever. They may be right, but I seriously doubt that - and no sane person who studies history should. 

Both the Occupy Protesters and the Tea Party people on their respective sides of the political spectrum are manifestations of social dissatisfaction with the political status quo. There is a growing consensus in the nation that we are being ‘had’. Big Money has attempted to use the Tea Party of advance their agendas, not realizing the danger they may be unleashing upon themselves. I believe they are now starting to perceive this which is one reason the Tea Party has quietened down lately - their backers have backed off.

The pressure is building, and it is past time for ‘We the People’ to take back our country - peaceably if possible - but take it back we must. Otherwise, we are in for a bloody explosion sometime in our future, and fairly soon in my opinion. 

Who can fix things? Not me, certainly, but I have been giving this some considerable thought and believe I have some ideas which can help. I will lay those out in a future blog posting as soon as I can find the time to write them down.

My Uncle Bud

I sure get a kick out of my Uncle Bud Seawright. Oh, he’s not really my uncle, just a really good, long time family friend. The thing about Uncle Bud is, he calls things just exactly like he sees them. There’s no ‘finesse’ bullshit about Uncle Bud. And, Uncle Bud has a good bit to say about the current state of affairs in these good old United States of America today.

“Ain’t never been this bad before,” he says. “never, no time.”

One of his favorite topics lately is the Tea Party phenomenon. “What in Hell are they talking about they ‘won’t stand it anymore’?” he says.  “Hell, most of ‘em never had it so good in their gol-damned lives! That’s how come they got the time and wherewithal today to have them rallies they call ‘Tea Parties’ where they stand around and holler about how they’re gonna ‘take back their country’! Damnation! Pure dog ignorance oughten never to be a point of view!”

Uncle Bud says the only tea parties he ever knew about were for sissy little girls and their imaginary friends. And the more I think about that, the more sense it makes to me.

Uncle Bud says, "it’s gol-damned well obvious some folks never get too old to learn something stupid, on top of them already being dumber than a half can of five-year-old house paint to start with." I guess you might say he doesn’t have a whole lot of use for the Tea Partiers.

“Hell, most of ‘em’s on the social security rolls anyhow.” he says. “They’re just all churn and no buttermilk, and letting the demagogues run ‘em around like lab rats in a maze.”

And don’t get Uncle Bud started on what he thinks about today’s Republicans. “Hell, I used to think a lot of Republicans.” Uncle Bud says. “In fact, I voted Republican more times than not, back when they had some damned sense. Back a while you could count on most Republicans to do the right thing, but now, all they do is whore for the banks, the rich and big business, and talk gloom, doom and calamity with a black Democrat in the White House. That is, what time they ain't chasing restroom queers and little boys, and every damned one of ‘em preaching ‘family values!’”

“I remember what that Republican Senator Margaret Chase Smith told that godawful slimy toad Joe McCarthy back in the ‘fifties.” Uncle Bud says. “She told him, she was a Republican, but damned sure didn’t want to ride to victory on the four horsemen of calumny - fear, ignorance, bigotry and smear. I was mighty proud of that little woman when she told him that, I tell you, still am, God rest ‘er soul. But, it sure looks like the Republicans have resurrected those horsemen lately.” 

Whenever I catch Uncle Bud mentioning ‘God’ or religion, I never say anything. I don’t want to get him started off down THAT road. 

Uncle Bud says religion, and especially the Christian flavor “Ain’t nothing but fairy tales based on myths writ down by goat herders thousands of years ago, and served up today by self-serving charlatans, to the naive and scairt, trying to relieve them of as much of their money as they can.”

"Hellfire, some of them 'Reverends' got gold rings on every damned finger!"

You can see why I don’t want to get off on that topic. He’s bad enough about it without my mentioning anything. The last time he got off on the subject of American Christians he got so mad he started shouting at me. Me, his loyal friend!

I said, “Uncle Bud, hold on just a minute. You know all that religion stuff is not MY fault?”

And, he just snorted and said, “I never said it was your damned fault! I just said I was blaming you!”

No, Rick Perry Wasn’t Drunk!

Some people thought Rick Perry could have been drunk, or stoned, or off his meds, or on his meds too much, or a combination of several of those things during a speech he gave in New Hampshire on October 28, 2011. Indeed, Perry did seem loopy, bizarrely flippant and drunkenly carefree at times, saying  nutty things, slurring his words and making extravagant gestures. But it was simply all part of his master plan says Perry.

“Hey look,” he said, “I’ve got to get noticed. I’ve slid in the polls lately and I’m only doing some of the stuff which helped Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, Rick Santorum and some of those other bat shit crazies get bumps in their charts when they did the same thing.”

“I’m rebooting my campaign like I said the other day. And, I sure as Hell don’t want to come off all professorial and superior acting like Mitt Romney and various other intellectuals I don’t need to name for you.” Perry left unclear whether he was referring to Newt Gingrich, Karl Rove or Joe-the-Plumber Wurzelbacher. “I’m just a simple down-to-earth guy.” he claimed.

“In fact, the simpler things are the better I like ‘em.” Perry explained. “That’s exactly why I’ll always be a strict creationist and won’t ever pollute my mind with silly notions like evolution. All that evolution stuff is just too damned confusing for a cowboy like me. And, that’s why I am a good Christian too. Besides Christianity being what I always had crammed down my throat as a boy, it’s a Hell of a lot simpler and easier to believe in than trying to figure out all that scientific heeby-jeebiness which just makes my head hurt. I’m leave that up to the eggheads who have the time for it. If they can come up with something they like better than what’s in the Bible, well halleleluja for them. They just don’t want to be trying to teach that stuff in our schools, at least in Texas by God. Myself, as a man of action, I just don’t have the time for all that science crap. If Christianity was good enough for Jesus and George W. Bush, it’s good enough for me too, by God.”

Perry explained that his speech was intended to be on the bizarre side from the beginning. “So’s our regular conservative folks can relate to it.” he said. “Hell, our Tea Party folks are gonna reject it out of hand if it makes any sense at all anyway. They can claim to want the truth all day long, but what they really want is the crazy stuff, and the crazier the better. Don’t you dare be trying to bring them any facts if you want their support.”

“And we’re the only true patriots and the only ones still holding the country together right now.” Perry explained. “It’s ‘Live Free or Die’ and ‘Victory or Death’, and ‘Bring It On’ you know.  Ain’t no middle ground on our patriotism.”

“And that’s another reason we’ve got to stamp out all those Global Warming notions too. That ain’t nothing but a liberal communist plot to weaken our economy and our country so socialism can take over. So what if it’s a few degrees warmer this year than last? Hell! That’s just weather, and you’ll always have weather if you like it or not! Jesus never worried about a little hot or cold did he?”

“I don’t care what all those scientific ‘’experts’ say either.” Perry went on. “If they’s so all-fired ‘expert’ and smart, how come they ain’t running things? How come one-a-them ain’t the Governor of the great state of Texas ‘stead of me, for example? I’ll tell you why! It’s ‘cause the salt of the earth people like me got way better sense about what’s real and important than they do, that’s why! You can forget about all that scientific fact baloney.”

“And, as long as we can keep getting elected, we’ll keep the country safe, conservative and Christian too. And, that’s exactly why I’m running for president of these United States of America!”

A Whiff of Revolution in the Making . . .

Today’s Republicans are nothing like most Republicans of the 50’s through the 70’s who were THE progressive party. Republicans have always been ‘the business party’, but most members were reasonable and moderate - and were the responsible for things like the EPA and the Clean Water Act under Nixon for example.

When business morphed into huge mega-corporations operating on global scales is when things changed. The corporations, some of whom were financially more powerful than many of the nations wherein they operated evidently concluded regulatory agencies were insufferable monsters insofar as business profits are concerned. Since the populist ‘Reagan Revolution’ there has been a concerted and sustained attack on them, and anything else potentially affecting profits like unions.

There is always a conservative resentment against most social programs, Republicans viewing those as rewards for being ‘lazy’ - regardless of the realities. During Reagan’s time we saw the beginnings of an unholy but also largely unrecognized amalgamation of big business and theocracy. I believe business first saw religion as a vehicle they could guide and use on their crusades against anything smacking of socialism - even social justice. They began with anti-science, global warming being their focus. Business saw efforts to combat climate change as a clear danger to profit.  But, theocrats also crusade against evolution, abortion, homosexuality - anything religionists viewed as going against the bible - as interpreted by some of the religious leaders whether or not actually true to messages in The Book. This also happens to coincide, not incidentally, with much of the archaic culture, politics and thought of the South and Southwest, mired in visions of days gone by. The Tea Party seems almost cloned from that, and reminds me very much of the rise of George Wallace and his “American Independence Party” in the late 1960’s.

However theocracy, being irrational to begin with, is notoriously hard to control, and business has now found they have created yet another beast they have no choice but to continue to try to ride if they have any hope of guiding. But, I believe they have collectively misjudged this monster, and it will end up counter-productive to their aims. I am almost certain the conservative fundamentalist wing will now consume the Republican Party, especially if any of the Tea Baggers end up with the nomination. With Perry, Bachmann, and Palin they are definitely in the top tier. But, I also think/hope clearer heads will prevail in the end and someone like Romney or Huntsman will end up the nominee - not that that will make a huge difference in the election. That will split the party with some going for Ron Paul or a second conservative candidate, and resulting in Obama winning.

The current drive for conservative ideological ‘purity’ where social programs are destroyed, unions attacked, and the poor and dispossessed are further disenfranchised and marginalized is an extremely dangerous tactic for business. I believe the ones behind this do not recognize the risks they are taking. The apparently are ignorant of or deny history. It is as Karl Marx classically predicts in Das Kapital!,  when more and more people are dispossessed and more and more wealth concentrated in fewer hands, an explosion becomes inevitable. He has been proven right.

And when that day comes here, it will likely be violent and bloody. Big business capitalists will struggle mightily and brutally, and mount imaginative campaigns against their enemies, but in the end will be overwhelmed. Their economic might simply will not stand up to the mass numbers of people in the streets who will be arrayed against them. We have a whiff of this already in the revolts of the people in the Middle East against their leaders of decades. The tide becomes inexorable and will drown the oppressors. And as Marx wrote, “the expropriators become expropriated!”

It will not be a pretty sight, and many people will suffer or die. It will take years to recover, restore infrastructure, and regain a semblance of balance and prosperity. We have, in fact, already suffered damage like this. I have now become convinced this will happen, primarily because I have now come to realize there is no real difference between the two major political parties when it comes to business having dominance over them.

You can already hear lots of hostile rumblings in the mass of centrist moderates who make up the huge center of political thought in this country. These are the folks who really decide elections in the USA, and whose numbers outweigh both major political parties put together. When the inertia of this mass begins moving strongly in a definite direction, those in the line of march better watch out - and 'keeping their powder dry' won't matter one bit. Maybe our coming revolution will be a peaceable one, but I will not put money on that today.

The Tea Party Nation

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Don’t want no stinking immigration,

Don’t want no stinking taxation,

Don’t want no stinking innovation

Don’t want no stinking information,

Teabillies will run the Tea Party Nation.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Don’t care about no education,

Don’t care about no medications,

Don’t care about no starvations,

Don’t care about no stimulations,

Teabillies will run the Tea Party Nation.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

We created a huge conflagration,

We created an outrageous situation,

We created some big complications.

We created political devastation,

Teabillies will run the Tea Party Nation.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

We want a complete GOP abdication,

We want a complete GOP subordination,

We want a complete GOP reformation,

We want a complete GOP mutation,

Teabillies will run the Tea Party Nation.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

We don’t worry about our defamations,

We don’t worry about our disseminations,

We don’t worry about our intimidations.

We don’t worry about our reputations,

Teabillies will run the Tea Party Nation.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

We will dictate the political equation,

We will dictate the laws and regulations,

We will dictate on business domination,

We’ll dictate as toadies for big corporations,

Teabillies will run the Tea Party Nation.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * 

We don’t care about no calculations,

We don’t care about no privations,

We don’t care our Washington delegations,

Create havoc, despair and deprivations,

Teabillies will run the Tea Party Nation.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

We reckon democracy is an aberration,

We reckon tolerance is an aggravation,

We reckon equality is just a creation,

Of liberal and socialist imaginations,

Teabillies will run the Tea Party Nation.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

We don't care about no cooperation,

We don't care about no moderation,

We don't care about no mediation,

We don't care about no conversations,

Teabillies will run the Tea Party Nation.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Deniamentia in Wingnuttia

I made an unplanned trip to Wingnuttia just today. It was a mistake. I have been there before and thought I knew something about the place, but it changed since I last visited. Used to be there were just a few crackpots wandering around waving around flags with rattlesnakes on them and words saying ‘Don’t Tread On Me’ and ‘Time To Reload’. A lot of those people seemed to be Social Security types - on the ‘government dole’ if you will, not that it seemed to matter to them while they are whining about the expenses of the US government.

There are more younger people in Wingnuttia these days - strident and militant, demanding, irrational sounding people. Leadership appears to be transient and rotates around among Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachman and some guy named Rick Santorum to name just a few. The message has not changed, except it is more grim, and the mania has gotten worse. Quite a few of the Wingnuttian leaders are limping around with injured feet, apparently from shooting themselves in the foot while snap-shooting from the hip I suppose. Many others show bruised lips and tongues from the disease very common to their culture: FITMD, or “Foot In The Mouth Disease”, sometimes referred to by others as “Shitlips” in the vernacular.

But, I digress. I wasn’t headed to Wingnuttia when I landed there, but Norway, where a tragedy of epic proportions occurred yesterday. I simply wanted news about that and went online to check the story. Turns out the author of this unspeakable act was a Christian fundamentalist, racist and right wing extremist - the very same sort of person as the inhabitants of Wingnuttia.

While still in the Norwegian story, I unfortunately strayed to take a peek at some of the online comments to the story, only to find myself instantly transported deep into the heartland of Wingnuttia. Blam! There I was!

Wow, those Wingnuttians sure get exercised when anyone associates their kind with anything like this! I think it’s a form of deniamentia. Wingnuttians as a culture, are accustomed to laying blame on ‘anyone but us’ and when anything strikes close to home, collective fuses seem to start shorting out all over the place.

The Wingnuttia national news organ - Fox News - did not even mention the ‘right wing Christian fundamentalist’ component at all until virtually every other news organ on the planet spelled it out for them - in stark, simple terms. Then, it was ’Katie, bar the door!’. Wingnuttians came out in swarms to defend Christianity, extremism, right-wing nuttiness, racism and fundamentalism - while taking zero acknowledgement of their roles in the nurturing of such acts as happened in Norway.

Today’s Fox News headline banner reads for example, “Puzzling Portrait Emerges of Gunman ….” as if the fact that he is a rightwing, racist Christian fundamentalist is totally irrelevant. And comments from Wingnuttians to Fox News and others were rabid in their deniamentia. Here are just a few examples (Note, I’ve left the spelling and syntax just as it appears in print):

From the Portland, Maine Press Herald: “A Christian is one who follows the teachings of Jesus Christ. Christ never went around murdering people., This man is not a Christian. Before folks claim the title of Christian they really should find out what it means.”

From ‘roberta7709’ to Fox News: "Evidently the liberals in Norway have opened the floodgates to immigration from the dark-skinned world. A lot of the kids killed are dark skinned and are connected to the liberal/labor political party.  The country has much larger entitlement programs than the US.  I understand that when you get married in Norway, the government gives you a few thousand for furniture and to set up your new home. So, it is easy to see why the immigrants would flock to Norway, and why the natives would be unhappy."

(Gosh, that one rolls racism, immigration, ‘entitlement programs’ [wingnuttease for ‘socialism’] and liberals all into one neat package! Impressive!)

‘quidestveritas’, comments to Fox News: “This guy was a Christian by NAME ONLY.  He obviously wasn't a practicing Christian . . . “.

And, one posted by nw5052001, again to Fox News: “Its a fact the rest of the world has been making warnings about multiculturalism being a failure..the liberals support it and laugh at the warning......thinking only they know best…”

Posted by ‘dleebro’ to CNN: “What a tragedy! Also regretable is ABC's repetition of another news source that the man arrested is a Christian fundamentalist.”

Another to CNN by ‘shalvah_42000’: “He is not a Christian nor represents Christians or conservatives. If he was a Muslim you would all have a different attitude so I don't appreciate the anti-Christ and anti-conservative point of view.”

And, by ‘jls1950benn’ to CNN: “Just because a christian goes out and murder ...proves that that person was never in fact a Christian in the first place: he was merely making a pretense - a self-deluded imposter . . . “

See what I mean? Deniamentia is rising to be an extremely serious epidemic in Wingnuttia. I’m so sorry I had to go there today - and I couldn’t even get my passport stamped. . . .

President Obama, as perceived by Far Right Wingers

The following are the perceptions widely perceived and re-translated by Far Right Wingers about what President Obama says and does:

What Obama actually does: Extends medical care to millions of uninsured Americans;

What the Far Right Wingers say: “Obama’s anti-American socialist agenda to cost insurance companies billions.’

What Obama actually does: Resuscitates the national economy;

What the Far Right Wingers say: ‘Obama’s economic policy not equal to Bush’s.’

What Obama actually does: Urges vigorous enforcement efforts to lower national crime levels;

What the Far Right Wingers say: ‘Nation’s prisons and jails woefully insufficient and understaffed under Obama’s plan.’

What Obama actually does: Pats child on head during public occasion.

What the Far Right Wingers say: ‘Authorities suspect Obama of pedophilia’.

What Obama actually does: Pins medal on military hero;

What the Far Right Wingers say: ‘Obama ignores millions of soldiers to reward favorite.’ 

What Obama actually does: Urges development of fuel efficient vehicles;

What the Far Right Wingers say: ‘Obama plots to destroy nation’s energy companies.’

What Obama actually does: Praises Catholic relief agency;

What the Far Right Wingers say: ‘Obama shows his scorn for protestant relief efforts.’

What Obama actually does: Urges remedial climate change legislation;

What the Far Right Wingers say: ‘Obama imperils planet with radical plan.’

What Obama actually does: Comes out of shower in morning;

What the Far Right Wingers say: ‘President said to walk around nude in the White House.’

What Obama actually does: Shakes hands with Russian Prime Minister;

What the Far Right Wingers say: ‘Obama obsequious and embarrassingly friendly with Communist leader.’

What Obama actually does: Golfs on Sunday;

What the Far Right Wingers say: ‘Obama ignores important national business in romp with friends.’

What Obama actually does: Visits VA hospital;

What the Far Right Wingers say: ‘Obama shows guilt for his policies now crippling American soldiers.’

What Obama actually does:  Suggests comprehensive legislation to settle immigration problems;

What the Far Right Wingers say: ‘Obama’s policies will put millions of farmers and small businesses in dire economic straits and imperil nation’s food sources.’

What Obama actually does: Furnishes long-form birth certificate;

What the Far Right Wingers say: ‘Obama sneaks in forged birth documents.’

What Obama actually does: Refuses to release gruesome picture of dead terrorist;

What the Far Right Wingers say: and, ‘Bin Laden death claim suspected Obama hoax.’

What Obama actually does: Kisses wife in public;

What the Far Right Wingers say: ‘Psychiatrists wonder if Obama is sexual deviant.’

What Obama actually does: States he is a Christian;

What the Far Right Wingers say: ‘Obama pretends christianity to hide his implacable Muslim faith.’

What Obama actually does: Meets with Republican leaders;

What the Far Right Wingers say: ‘Obama’s smarmy arm-twisting fails to sway honest Republicans.’

What Obama actually does: Attends Broadway play with his wife;

What the Far Right Wingers say: ‘Obama neglects his own children in wild night on the town.’

What Obama actually does: Has a drink at a cocktail party;

What the Far Right Wingers say: ‘Doctors suspect Obama of hiding alcoholism.’

What Obama actually does: Criticizes outrageous Tea Party claims;

What the Far Right Wingers say: ‘Obama attacks free speech rights of American patriots.’

What Obama actually does: Makes offhand joke about Sarah Palin;

What the Far Right Wingers say: ’Sarah Palin steadfast and unruffled by Obama lies.’

What Obama actually does: Says he believes in free markets;

What the Far Right Wingers say: ‘Obama unsuccessfully hides his anti-capitalist socialist program.’

What Obama actually does: Watches people walk down the street;

What the Far Right Wingers say: ‘Is President Obama a secret voyeur?’

What Obama actually does: Supports civil rights for gays;

What the Far Right Wingers say: ‘Obama now out of the closet!’

What Obama actually does: Believes in hope and change;

What the Far Right Wingers say: ‘Obama hopes to change everything we value in this country.’

What Obama actually does: Says money is not the most important thing in life;

What the Far Right Wingers say: ‘Obama’s shows his true anti-capitalist communist colors.’

What Obama actually does: Says he believes in a woman’s right to choose what happens to her own body;

What the Far Right Wingers say: ‘Obama ardent supporter of abortion mills and murder of the unborn.’

What Obama actually does: Finds a cure for cancer and the common cold;

What the Far Right Wingers say: ‘Obama seeks to put thousands of doctors and nurses out of work.’

What Obama actually does: Hunts down and kills Osama bin Laden;

What the Far Right Wingers say: ‘Obama violates borders of sovereign nation to murder man.’ 

or, 

‘Obama's success is really based on George W. Bush’s actions.’

or, 

 ‘Obama had him in secret prison all along to await right moment to kill him.’

and/or,

(Pick one or more):

It was a staged death to insure Obama’s reelection;

It was a staged death to divert attention from a Miss USA being groped causing another backlash against the TSA; 

It was a staged death to divert attention from the collapse of the dollar and rising gas prices;

It was a staged death to divert attention from hyperinflation;

It was a staged death to divert attention from the release of the long form birth certificate and lack of a paper trail.

Most of the above are actual claims made by right wing nutters. Well OK, I threw in a few I made up like curing cancer and the common cold. But most are the claims and statements actually being made, or which might easily be made by the unhinged nut jobs on the far right now flying the Republican Party around in tight, bizarre circles.

All On Board the Crazy Train!

Wonderful News!

Crusaders are now coming out of the woodwork and wormholes to save our nation! They tell us they know better than anyone else and can and will save us from ourselves. They will take us all back to a far simpler, safer time when everything is all milk, honey, roses and cash on the barrelhead. Back to the past where the world is flat and the Sun revolves around the Earth, the very center of the universe itself, where a Christian God rules everything, where the good get richer and the poor get poorer, the sick get sicker and deserve it by God. Back to a time of black and white certainties, with no grey areas and no doubts about anything at all, ever, thank you very much!

To save ourselves we are told, we will have to put our faith in these wise, determined crusaders for mom, apple pie, cold hard cash and the American Way, and let them show us the way. They are on board a wildly careening and crusading Crazy Train and stoking the fires to work up a head of steam for days to come. They have their Tin Hats all secured in their luggage and their White Horses, Unicorns and Centaurs in the baggage car and letting us know they are on their way to save us all.

‘Just who are these crusaders?’ you may well ask.

If you ever doubted the existence of the figures in those irrational fantasies we heard about and feared as children, now is the time put those doubts to rest for good. They actually do exist in the form of these crusaders who daily live and speechify amongst us. That’s the good news - but very sadly, that’s the awful, wretched news too.

So, who are they? Let’s make a list, in no particular order shall we?

There’s, the Minnesota Banshee of course, Michelle. You didn’t think Banshee’s actually existed? Think again. Michelle is a living proof, with the wail or a tormented woman and the shriek of an injured owl, who gives continuous vent to venomous outrage violating all laws of lucidity or rationality. In fact, Michelle seems to posses a strict, determined and unfailing allegiance to irrationality.

Then there’s Jabberwocky Paul Ryan of Wisconsin who recklessly swings his Vorpal Sword in noisy defense of the official Tin Hat Banner (“Don’t Tread On Me!”) and has famously been heard to mutter, ‘All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.’, and, ‘Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas---only I don't exactly know what they are! But, I DO KNOW what’s good for YOU!’

There’s Tim the Seraphim, also from Minnesota. (Is there something in the water in those regions?) Tim has eagerly climbed aboard the Crazy Train too and champions evangelical endeavors to return the Earth to its flat, pure state and America to a place where immigrants, foreigners, abortionists and gays may be securely walled off for the protection of all good Christian folk, who are the inheritors of, and the rightful owners of this great nation, thank you very much.

There’s Huck, the pious Golem, who fantasizes we need “. . . . to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than try to change God’s standards so it lines up with some contemporary view.” (These are his actual words!) The contemporary view, by the way when the Constitution was written was ‘separation of church and state’. Huck sits right in the middle of the God Car on the Crazy Train along with Tim and Sarah, but running hot or cold depending on the mood of his handlers at Fox News.

We must not leave out The Donald, the comb-over Satyr who has lately boarded the Crazy Train and is now happily seated first class way up front. The Donald’s particular fantasy is that certain people are not actually born where they are born, but in fact, somewhere else, say not ‘Hawaii’ but ‘Africa’. People who believe this way are called ‘Birthers’ and are a brand new addition to Fantasyland. Alas, there are so many that most Birthers are compelled to ride second class on the Crazy Train - but certainly not The Donald whose hair we’ve been informed, actually has its very own birth certificate!!

There’s Newt the Phoenix, who’s risen from the ashes of his once commanding political career to re-board the Crazy Train anew. Newt fantasizes about a return to fondly remembered days of yore, when men were men, and women were women, and women could marry only men and vice versa. Newt himself provides three excellent examples for this procedure by having had affairs with younger women while his current wife is seriously ill, then divorcing the currently extant wife to marry the younger woman. None of that evil same-sex marriage stuff for an ethically challenged Phoenix, nosiree! Newt the Phoenix has a sub-speciality in train wrecking governments.

Sitting up front first class in the God Car on the Crazy Train with Huck and Tim is Sarah from Alaska, the Harpy/Siren who seems to so thrill the sex-subverted legions of Tea Partiers in their search for truths about God and making American safe for all good Christians, not to mention those lusting after unattainable women. Siren Sarah competes at least evenly with the Banshee for shrilling nonsense, especially when it comes to God-hollering and smacking down the less fortunate, and out does her by far when it comes to casting out demons and uncovering Death Panels.

Way back in the caboose is Haley, the Hellhound Boogeyman from Mississippi, whose main hope and goal it is to reestablish the Confederacy to an equal footing with the US Government and install the Ku Klux Klan as overseers of Social Security, Medicare and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. His secondary goal is to encode the Ten Commandments as law and official policy in a Christian government.

Alas, left behind at the station is a more sanely rational, but now very lonely Mitt Romney whose sin it was to actually put in place a health care system for all in Massachusetts when governor there. This is an unpardonable sin in the view of most Crazy Train riders in the wake of the new US national health care system modeled on Romney’s, but installed by a . . . gasp! . . . black democrat! However, Mitt is not completely out of the running as he is now urgently seeking and hopes to find a suitable shapeshifting methodology to overcome his handicap.

And, you thought myths and fantasy were just make believe?

Gosh! How gullible you must be!

Republicans Hurtle Towards Party Suicide

Republicans seem determined to drive themselves over the edge of the cliff. Candidates being considered these days as actual, viable Republican presidential contenders are one big reason. The leading contender is Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts who sponsored and signed into law universal health care for all state residents - an act upon which the new US health care law is based and which Romney now tries to keep quiet - because of pressure from his far right-wing supporters.. 

Second is a Fox News announcer and Southern Baptist preacher Mike Huckabee who seems like a kind of genial uncle with some curious notions like wanting to quarantine AIDS victims, considers homosexuals sinful and aberrant and has other far-right decidedly non-secular evangelical ideas.

Incredibly, third is ‘The Donald’, a laughable, comb-over, ego-centric real estate mogul who has been married three times and bankrupt as many times as well. The Donald now ranks ahead even of that paragon of conservative ideology and obtuse pronouncements Sarah Palin, who is actually #5 behind that gleeful architect of government shutdown, Newt Gingrich. Hello? Huckabee? The Donald? Gingrich? Palin? Republicans have got to be kidding!

Democrats must be chortling with gleeful anticipation.

There are other reasons I think the Republican Party has lost it. Everyone sees the Republican governors’ war on unions and public sector workers. Tea Party GOP candidates captured governor’s seats in several states including Wisconsin, Ohio, Maine and Florida in 2010, and quickly went to work demonizing labor and unions, and cutting budgets for schools, libraries, social safety nets and programs for the poor and disadvantaged. Most moved quickly to benefit business and corporate supporters in the form of tax cuts and other enticements - all at the expense of the people of their respective states. I’m sure they feel pressured to deliver promises made in the heat of the election process, but to most people they now appear determined to destroy the infrastructure of our very culture.

Sean Parnell, Sarah Palin’s successor in Alaska wants to give a $2 Billion tax break to oil companies, no strings attached; Rick Scott who gained office in Florida with the slogan ‘Let’s get to work!” evidently meant ‘for business’ as he wants a $458 Million tax cut for corporations while the Republican dominated legislature is cutting $4 Billion from classrooms, health care for the poor and cuts in pay and benefits for public workers. Wisconsin’s Scott Walker is old news with his tax cuts for business while gutting the state’s public sector unions and cutting state workers’ pay. 

Essentially the same thing is going on in other states like Indiana, Ohio and Maine. Maine’s governor Lepage, a former salvage yard operator, had a mural removed from the Department of Labor headquarters because it is ‘unfriendly to business’. Trouble is, the mural was mostly paid for with Federal funds and the state is now being sued by the US government! Lepage is the same guy who told the NAACP to ‘kiss my ass’ when they invited him to speak at their annual meeting. But, not to worry. Lepage also said he would tell President Obama to ‘go to Hell’.

One thing these governors all seem to have in common is, even though they pledged to help their states ‘grow jobs’ their actions are having the opposite effect. In Florida for example, nearly 10,000 state jobs may be sacrificed in a state which had one of the worst unemployment rates in the country at 11.5% in February, 2011. Nearly 1 million people lost jobs in Florida in the current recession. This governor is ‘growing jobs’? Hello? Did I miss something?

The second thing many hold in common is that at least three of the new Tea Party supported governors now face general public outrage and cries for their recall; Rick Scott of Florida, Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Paul Lepage of Maine. Wow! Just three months into their terms. That has to be some kind of record.

Another thing many seem to have in common is their unbearable - and often silly - penchant to dictate their versions of morality and decency, not to mention dogma. They remind me of the officious little snits some of us remember from our high school years. You remember, the person with the control complex who wanted you behave a certain way because he, or she was, you know, the official hall monitor. 

This sometimes leads to some unexpectedly satisfying histrionics. Case in point: A  Florida Democratic legislator’s wife joked to her husband she ought to incorporate her uterus since Republicans were against all business regulation. Her husband mentioned this in the legislature - using the word ‘uterus’. This caused the majority leader’s spokesperson to censure the legislator, Scott Randolph, telling him the use of the word was improper since 12 to 14 year-old pages were in attendance. The word might be bad for adolescent ears. You know, kind of like the hall monitor syndrome. Since then, the story has gotten traction and embarrassed Republicans now wish to disown it, but the Democrats won’t let them - and I’m happy to spread it too. There’s even a Facebook page for ‘Uterus’ now - with tee-shirts!  

Me, I’m calling the situation the CRUD: “Curious Republican Uterus Dread”

Who knows, maybe some bright person will incorporate abortions, or AIDS next . . .

What planet are these Republicans from today?  As one who has voted for many Republicans in my time (but NONE like these!), I am saddened. We really do need and require at least two viable political parties in this country to keep a semblance of honesty and balance in governance. I believe the so-called Tea Party is a one-trick pony with no staying power - but does have the ability to consume what is left of the Republican Party today. I am concerned since it sure seems Republicans are hell bent on destroying themselves as a party in their eagerness to curry favor with Tea Party twits. In the meantime they are doing much damage and setting our country back decades.

They themselves are very nervous too, as witness John Boehner’s waffling. Ah, well. We can still laugh - and spread the word - and unseat these anachronistic bozos.

Creepy Guys!

Is it just me, or do these two look like they came out of the same dinosaur egg?

They both give me the creeps. Same shining pates; Same loopy, gaga eyes; Same insolent smirks. They could be brothers, or son & father.

I don't know much about Loughner, except he thrust himself into the public consciousness through a single despicable, hate-filled act on a sunny day in Arizona by shooting Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and 19 others, killing 6 of them. I have followed Tea Party favorite Rick Scott though, and watched while he bought himself the governorship of Florida spending over $78 million of his own money.  Scott won his election by 1% of the vote against an able and smart Democrat.

Scott could afford it though. He is a tremendously successful gazillionaire who back in the 1990’s was a partner with George W. Bush in the ownership of the Texas Rangers ball team.  Most of his gazillions seem to have come from the hospital and pharmaceutical industries. Scott eventually parlayed control of several hospital ownership companies into ‘Columbia/Health Care America’ company, gaining control over a company with hundreds of hospitals and over 285,000 employees and was the 7th largest company based on payrolls in the US.

However, all was not roses. The FBI descended on the company in 1997, and it was eventually fined over $631 million for health care fraud, the biggest fraud fine in US history. The ensuing scandal cost Columbia/HCA over $2 billion, and Scott was forced out as CEO, though he was not personally charged with anything.  In 2001 SCott and a partner founded ‘Solantic’, a company to provide physicals, drug screenings,  job injury care, immunizations and urgent care services.  That company in turn has come into it’s share of legal troubles, mostly in the form of employment discrimination lawsuits because of age. But, perhaps it’s also significant that Scott now has NO minorities in his cabinet, as in ‘none’, although Florida’s Lt. Governor is black.    

Since becoming Florida’s governor, Scott has plunged headlong into ideological political regression on his terms alone, going against the majority of Floridans and his own party - but completely in tune with Tea Party dogma. He’s refused Federal high-speed rail money which would provided an estimated 20,000 - 30,000 new jobs. 67% of Floridians are for the project and only 17% against it. Scott is already being sued by both Democrat AND Republican legislators as ‘overstepping his executive authority’. 

Now, two months into his term a group has already formed to seek his recall, or ‘firing’. Rick Scott has never held elective office of any sort before and the hue and cry is being raised all over the state about his ‘imperial style of governing’.  However, Florida has no method to remove a governor from office short of impeachment for illegal acts. To remedy that one legislator, State Representative Rick Kriseman, has introduced HB 787 that would allow recall of state officials.

Some of Scott’s other regressive moves:

• 15% cut in state education funding;
• Wants to fire1690 state department of corrections employees;
• Wants to eliminate another 7000 state jobs;
• Wants to give $4 billion in tax cuts, including reducing corporate income taxes;
• Seeks to transfer Medicaid recipients into privately run managed care groups;
• Scott has forbidden state employees from discussing global warming;
• Wants to repeal of a state law to prevent medical prescription fraud!!

So much for job creation for this governor! In fact, this governor all by himself makes any normal recession look positively rosy. And all his idiocy makes him a hero to Tea Partiers who are now even talking about the possibility of this loose cannon running for president one day! Thus, we see one nut case who picks up a gun with a thirty round ammo clip to make his statement versus another one who spent over $78 million of his own money to impose his regressive ideology on an entire state. It is my fervent hope the future is very dark for both of them.

How Crazy Can They Get?

Much of the country - the moderate people who comprise the vast middle ground of US political opinion - marvel at the political excesses of the Tea Party people. I have written about them in several times before, sometimes simply reporting the facts and sometimes trying for a bit of humor. *

The Tea Party mindset is not a recent development. We have always had the far out crazies on both the radical right and left. However, these crazies were more constrained in the past, perhaps because of their sub-conscious sense of their own ridiculous radicalization. No longer. Today they are ‘mainstream’.

The rising crescendo of shrill right wing demagoguery and the demonizing of anyone who doesn’t subscribe to their regressive dogma has motivated thousands of these crazies to come out of the woodwork. They now believe - and loudly proclaim - they represent a groundswell of grassroots majority populism, even though poll numbers say otherwise. There have always been some who never hid their nuttiness, who didn’t care if others thought they were way over the edge. Recall George Wallace of Alabama, David Duke of Louisiana and the recently deceased Reverend Jerry Falwell. Falwell once said, ‘Textbooks are Soviet propaganda.” in one of his many witless proclamations. He said so many stupid things I had to laugh when Christopher Hitchens said after Falwell’s death, "If he had been given an enema, he could have been buried in a matchbox."

Tea Party populism is the ‘God, Guns and Gold’ variety, loudly and obnoxiously championed by people like Sarah Palin, and Ron Paul, and their Fox News collaborators. The Tea Party succeeded in electing a number of their people into office in the 2010 elections, and they are making themselves heard and felt, misguided as they are. A lot of these people are new to the political process, but some have been there all along. Until now, their bizarre activities have been shoved to the side or ignored. But now, newly emboldened, they are ‘mainstreaming’.

That does not make them any less bizarre however. One nut case in Georgia recently made the news when he asked his Republican Congressman Paul Broun in a public meeting: “When are we going to shoot Obama?” At the time Broun made absolutely no objection to the publicly expressed thought of shooting the sitting President of the United States.  Later, Broun tried to justify his failure to be responsible, claiming “I was stunned by the question and chose not to dignify it with a response; therefore, at that moment I moved on to the next person with a question."

R-I-I-I-G-H-T. But, not surprisingly, that’s not what really transpired. At the meeting Broun actually matter-of-factly answered the question saying, “The thing is, I know there’s a lot of frustration with this president. We’re going to have an election next year. Hopefully, we’ll elect somebody that’s going to be a conservative, limited-government president that will take a smaller, who will sign a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare.”

That was it. That’s the new ‘normal’ for these people.  Broun's kind are not lonely in this area of Georgia. This year, the region’s Republican Georgia State Representative Bobby Franklin - who holds a 'Biblical degree' - was first in line to introduce numerous bizarre bills and resolutions to the state legislature, including but not limited to the following:

• A bill to make women prove miscarriage or face felony charges;
• A bill to eliminate drivers’ licenses; “"licensing of drivers cannot be required of free people because taking on the restrictions of a license require the surrender of an inalienable right.”;
• A bill to bar state from requiring vaccinations, the ‘Freedom from Compulsory Pandemic Act’;
• A bill to require taxpayers to pay in gold or silver only;
• A bill prohibiting local governments from interfering with a (city) resident who wants to raise chickens, rabbits, hogs cows or goats;
• A bill stating that since Georgia was not a party to the suit in Roe v. Wade, it is not bound by that decision. The bill defines life as beginning at conception, and abortion as murder;
• A bill prohibiting the state from collecting income taxes;
• A bill to change names of ‘victims’ to ‘accusers’ (as in rape ‘victims’ to ‘accusers’);
• A bill to allow any legislator to lobby for special interests;
• A bill to abolish Department of Human Services;
• A bill to require property damage or bodily injury or death before citing a person for traffic violations;
• A bill to repeal prohibition agains carrying concealed weapons in church
• A bill to repeal prohibition agains carrying concealed weapons for post-secondary schools;
• A bill to abolish property taxes;
• A bill to provide that land use and zoning laws, ordinances, and resolutions shall be prohibited;
• A RESOLUTION informing a Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice that Georgia is a republic, not a democracy.

This is completely nuts, and unbelievable to any rational person, I know. Anyone except Tea Partier types would consider this guy as certifiable - yet he is routinely justified and defended in our right wing blogosphere. More bizarre yet is that that this is routine for Bobby Franklin, who has been elected over and over, and is now serving his EIGHTH consecutive term!

No one should be surprised however. This region also produced Newt Gingrich, who ‘shut down’ the government once before, and also US Representative Larry McDonald (a ‘conservative Democrat’!) who died when Korean Air Lines flight 007 was shot down over Russia in 1983. McDonald also just happened to be the President of the John Birch Society at the time, and was considered as the second most conservative member in Congress - behind Ron Paul!

The Republican Party is desperately trying to get ahead of what they perceive, correctly in my opinion, as a movement which can engulf them. They are trying to 'embrace' the crazies in order to preserve their party, but in the process finding themselves being moved so far right as to make the GOP increasingly irrelevant. That's the danger in trying to ride a wild horse. The so-called Tea Partiers themselves are too radical ever to be a party in their own right. Mainstream America simply will not tolerate their excesses for long.  They will end up sucking the life out of the GOP

We know where the crazies are. They live among us - and are trying to convince everyone they are the new normal. But, that just ain't so. . . and never will be.

* Tea Party in Alaska

   Questions for Tea Party

   Tea Party Jesus

   Tea Party Ship of State

   Tea Party Gun Nuts

   Tea Party Racists

   Black-balled by Tea Party

   How to Tell if You May be a Tea Partier

   Should I be a Tea Partier?

   Modern America Tea Party

   Planning a Tea Party

Hijacking The Christmas Tree

There has been mini-controversy lately about a ‘Holiday Tree’ installed by the city of Portland, Maine in their Monument Square. The controversy comes because the city does not call the tree a ‘Christmas Tree’. instead they say it is, ‘the tree that signals the holiday season in Portland’. A lot of people around Maine are upset it is not being called a Christmas Tree.

Portland columnist Bill Nimitz suggests tongue in cheek the tree be called ‘Bruce the Spruce’, to disarm things, but that has only further inflamed the issue. For some reason, Christians in particular seem overly concerned about the nomenclature of things like trees, especially when they associate it with their religion.

But, the city of Portland has done exactly right. The tree is in the spirit of the holiday, and not a Christian Christmas. And, of course there are now several flavors to this seasonal holiday, among them ‘Kwansa & Hannukah’. A few years ago in Seattle a city Christmas Tree’ had to be taken down after a rabbi asked that a menorah be placed next to a Christmas display so labeled.

The rabbi had every right to make the request. When public money is spent on and identified with parochial issues - like Christmas - it is in violation of both the letter and intent of the US Constitution, although you will hear few Tea Partiers complain about that. They scream long, loudly and incessantly about the ‘Constitution’ and Constitutional rights - as long as they agree with whatever it is. But, go against their dogma - and the Tea Party is largely peopled by so-called ‘Christians’ - you will hear nary a peep. Not one single one. In fact, I’d lay even money that a lot of the people now screaming about the Holiday Tree in Portland are Tea Partiers. I'd win hands down too.

Ironically, the tree in Christmas celebrations has nothing to do with Christ. It is the result of a medieval priest’s (St. Boniface of Geismar, Germany) overreaction to the ‘Tree of Thor’, celebrating a Norse God. Maybe the tree should really be called the ‘Anti-Thor Tree’ or, the 'Un-Thor Tree'. Evergreen trees are associated with pagan pre-Christian Druid winter solstice celebrations, who also venerated Holly and Mistletoe. It is probably for that reason Puritans banned Christmas trees in early New England.

But, never mind. Christians have latched onto the tree and claimed it as their own. At first, about 150 years ago in the United States the custom was sporadic and took a while to catch on. But now, it is THEIRS by God and they want no one else to have a say in it. It’s a Christmas Tree by God, it’s theirs, it represents Christ’s birthday and by God that’s all there is to it! No matter the reality.

So, the tree has been hijacked, in many ways very like the way conservative movement and Tea Partiers  hijacked the word ‘Patriot’. Patriots are them by God, and only them by God, and no one else need apply by God. Anyone else is a traitor according to their definition. You don’t want to cross those conservative Christian Tea Partiers.

And, another funny thing is, according to old and longstanding tradition, the tree is not put up until Christmas Eve. Now that it appears everywhere just after Thanksgiving is due to the mercenary avariciousness of retailers, and Christmas Tree merchants - probably not a really good reason to celebrate with the tree. 

Ain’t history and reality fascinating?

The Tea Party and Alaska’s Joe Miller

I've gotten a lot of entertainment watching the Senate election campaign by Alaska's Tea Party favorite Joe Miller. His campaign has been a Chinese fire drill of missteps and malapropisms from almost the very beginning. Now, he is widely considered by most Alaskans as a 'Nut Job'. In the primary election, Miller was a kind of a ‘sleeper’ Tea Party supported candidate who captured the Republican senatorial nomination by catching a complacent sitting Senator Lisa Murkowski by surprise. Sarah Palin and the Tea Party threw support and buckets of out-of-state money into both the primary and the general elections.

Finally awakening to what was happening, Murkowski mounted an apparently successful write-in campaign to win the vote in the general election. When and if she is certified she will become only the second senator in history to do so, and the first since 1954 when Strom Thurman won a write-in campaign in South Carolina. The decision is now tied up in several court cases. Joe Miller is pulling out all the stops to block Murkowski from being certified the winner. The Tea Party, and especially Republican Senator Jim Demint of South Carolina are fighting a desperate last ditch battle in the hopes of having Miller put in office over the wishes of the people of the state of Alaska.

Someone called Miller a ‘descendant’ of the infamous Soapy Smith of Gold Rush days in Skagway, Alaska. He certainly looks the part. Soapy was the iconic con man originally from Georgia, who moved to Skagway in 1897 and gathered a large and intimidating gang to become the de facto ruler of the town. Ol’ Soapy had his fingers in just about every pie around and his gang enforced his rule with force of arms and bullying. He even formed his own ‘militia’, naming himself as captain, which was recognized by the US War Department, and which he used to help him control the town of Skagway.

Soapy Smith was ultimately confronted and shot to death by Frank Reid, who himself was wounded and died twelve days later. Reid was part of a vigilante committee formed to combat Soapy’s nefarious criminal activities

And, indeed the similarities between Joe Miller and Soapy Smith give one pause, especially the striking physical resemblances. Both came from ‘away’. Both lied, distorted and twisted facts. Miller has loudly and incessantly decried all government aid as ‘handouts’ while taking advantage of a great amount himself, or for his family. Soapy Smith’s ‘handouts’ were the ones he grabbed for himself through cons and swindles. I think my favorite Soapy Smith tale is about the fake telegraph office soapy set up for miners. For a charge of $5 he would ‘send’ a telegram back home for them - when telegraph lines did not even exist to Skagway at the time.

But, there does seem to be one big difference; Soapy Smith seems to have been extraordinarily intelligent, while Miller appears to just be one great big, bitter, whiny, deceitful Tea Party Republican dumb ass.

Questions for Tea Party People *

A few questions for the Tea Party people who say they are ‘Mad as hell, and won’t take it anymore”:

What the hell is wrong with you?

Why didn’t you get mad when the Supreme Court stopped a legal recount and appointed a President who lost the popular vote?

Why didn’t you get mad when Cheney invited Energy company officials to secretly dictate Energy policy?

Why didn’t you get mad when a covert CIA operative was outed by White House staff?

Why didn’t you get mad when the Patriot Act was passed taking away rights and freedoms?

Why didn’t you get mad when we invaded a country posing no threat to us?

Why didn’t you get mad when we spent over 800 billion on that war - and still counting?

Why didn’t you get mad when under Bush, our country borrowed more money from foreign sources than the previous 42 Presidents combined?

Why didn’t you get mad when over 10 billion dollars in cash disappeared in Iraq?

Why didn’t you get mad when our government was outed for torturing people?

Why didn’t you get mad when Bush administration policies helped ship over 6 million American jobs overseas?

Why didn’t you get mad when the government illegally wiretapped American citizens?

Why didn’t you get mad when George Bush let Osama Bin Laden get away?

Why didn’t you get mad when Bush ran up 10 trillion dollars in combined budget and current account deficits?

Why didn’t you get mad about the disgusting conditions at Walter Reed army hospital?

Why didn’t you get mad when our government let a major US city, New Orleans, drown?

Why didn’t you get mad when we gave the ultra rich over a trillion dollars in undeserved tax breaks while our deficit was spiraling out of control?

Why didn’t you get mad over worst 8 year record of job creations since the Great Depression?

Why didn’t you get mad when over 200,000 US Citizens lost their lives due to lack of health insurance?

Why didn’t you get mad when lack of oversight caused our Citizens to lose 12 trillion dollars in investments, retirement, and home values?

But you finally did get mad when a black man was elected president and worked enable everyone to get to see a doctor when needed?

Oh but yes, illegal wars, lies, corruption, torture, job losses by the millions, transferring your tax dollars to make the rich richer, and presiding over the worst economic disaster since 1929 are all okay with you, but helping fellow Americans who are sick . . . Oh, Hell No!!

What the hell is wrong with you anyway?

* With apologies and thanks to an otherwise unknown poster named 'Miles' from which the above has been paraphrased.

A Tea Party Jesus

I met a representative of Jesus the other day. That's what he told me.

He didn't seem a lot like the real Jesus, the one who was reportedly nailed to a cross over two millennia ago, then buried in a cave, then, if you believe in the legend, was raised from the dead to become the savior of Christian souls. No, this guy told me he was a retired tire vulcanizer from Cincinnati, Ohio. He carried a flag with a cross on it which had the words * 'Time to Reload' written on it. I found him at a Tea Party rally wearing a pair of camouflage pants and a baseball cap with the words, “NRA” boldly emblazoned in gold on the front.

I approached him for an interview. This guy was white, had a fair sized pot belly and was seriously going bald, both of which he tried to hide. He unsuccessfully tried to suck in his gut when I approached and his baldness wasn't evident until his flag accidentally brushed his cap off his head. He assured me he was 'standing up for Jesus' and was doing Jesus' work on Earth. He said was one of the faithful working to save our nation. I believed him.

“And, I'm taking my country back!” he informed me defiantly.

“From where and whom?” I wondered, puzzled.

“From the communists, and illegal immigrants and queers and liberals of course!” he said. “Them and their puppet Obama have just about destroyed the country. Just look at how deep in debt they have us now!”

“They have?” I asked.

“Damned right! And now, they're gonna raise taxes on everybody!” he replied.

“They are?” I asked. “I thought they were going to just let the tax cut for the rich expire. And, I thought the economy went sour while Bush was still in charge.”

“They are going to raise taxes on everybody making over $250,000 a year!” He spurted. “And everybody knows the Democrats ran the economy in the ditch the last year of Bush's term!”

“So, how will this affect you?” I asked. “Will your taxes go up because you make over $250,000 a year?”

“It's not me I'm talking about!” he protested. “If you tax the rich, then they won't have money to invest! That's the core principle of trickle down economics. Rush Limbaugh is always talking about that.”

“Well, it's not actually a tax increase.” I explained. “It's just letting Bush's tax cut expire. The tax rate will simply go back to where it was under Clinton – when we didn't have anything trickling down and things were booming right along nicely. We also had a big budget surplus back then too, or didn't you notice?”

“Nope. I was too busy making a living, and waiting for the shoe to drop.” he said.

“What shoe?” I asked.

“The economic shoe, dummy! What just happened!”

“But the economy went south two years ago under George W. Bush.” I pointed out mildly.

He snorted, “Are you nuts? It was Clinton's policies and the liberal Democrats in Congress who ambushed Bush and deliberately trashed the economy just to make him look bad. Rush Limbaugh has explained it on his radio show many, many times. Everybody knows that . . ”

“They do?”

“Hell yeah! Where you been, sleeping under a rock or something?” he retorted. “You must be part of that drive by media Rush is always talking about.”

There was no real answer to that so I just let it go.

“So, you think Jesus wants you to take our country back with guns?” I asked to change the subject.

“Damned right!” he retorted. “Just like we took it back from the British in the first place! It's about time to water the tree of liberty with blood, and * it's time to get liberals in the cross hairs!”

I said, “That doesn't sound much like the Jesus I learned about in Sunday School. That Jesus was supposed to be a man of peace and always tried to promote peace the way I remember it.”

He snorted, “Yeah, well if Jesus was on Earth today, he'd be out here with me. He doesn't intend for us to put us with communists and socialists or queers which are an abomination to his name. Jesus would have his guns loaded and locked, ready to defend our country against them like all patriots. I know that for a fact!”

“You do? I asked. “How?”

“Yep! All good Christians know that.”

“I take it you consider yourself a good Christian then.” I said. “Which church do you go to?”

“I'm a Jehovah's Witness.” he answered. “We're perfected Christians and my pastor says Jesus is real upset the way things are going and it's past time for Christians to set things straight. That's why I'm here today. If we can't straighten things out by electing the right people, we might need to take direct action.”

I asked, “Do you mean take up arms?”

“Hell, yeah!” he responded. “A lot of us Christians are locked and loaded and ready to go.”

“You do know armed insurrection against the government is illegal don't you?” I asked. “That if you take up guns to in defiance of law you could go to jail?”

“We don't pay attention to any laws that ain't the law of God.' he retorted. “God and Jesus guide us every step of the way, and I'm here to bear witness to that!”

I though it impolitic and would not serve any real purpose to point out that was exactly the way the Taliban justifies their terrorism. The only difference being nomenclature – Allah instead of Jesus.

I came away from the interview thinking if things keep going along the same way, this guy would probably need to enter the Jehovah Witness Protection Program someday.

* actual quotes by Sarah Palin