be careful what you wish for...

this puts crazy eyes across the line & into the sanity column...

teabagging...

get your mind out of the gutter...

but... imho, the teabaggers have been hijacked by the far right and Faux News in direct opposition to what baggers want; and the Becks et al have kept hidden from them the truth on what they historically are basing their 'movement' on"

"It turns out that that the tea baggers, led in part by Michelle Malkin, Glenn Reynolds and the Coward Rick Santelli, are politically more in line with the tax policies of King George than the views of the Sons of Liberty and the colonial patriots. The tax baggers emulating a protest against a corporate tax cut — but, oddly, in support of tax cuts for the rich and corporations. Furthermore, King George was against a corporate bailout loan. And so are the tea baggers."

Suzie-Q's Truth and Justice Blog, 3/18/09

if you look closely before the Palin's, Becks etc got a hold on the teabaggers, you will see that they started out wanting the same change that Obama campaigned on; namely, getting the biggest government ever created, by Tsar George, to move in reverse; the Faux News people won't let the blame fall where it belongs; they use nationalism, progressiveness, communism, nazis, etc as their watch words to keep the fear level high;

btw, it wasnt' British tea that was dumped in the harbor - it was Dutch

Olbermann's Special Comment...

if you saw Keith Olbermann the other night in his Special Comment regarding a followup on his father's illness and "Death Panels", he said that though his father has been semi-conscious he has been reading to him; one thing he's been reading are short stories by James Thurber.

he ended the Special Comment by reading the story below.


The Peacelike Mongoose

by James Thurber


In cobra country a mongoose was born one day who didn't want to fight cobras or anything else. The word spread from mongoose to mongoose that there was a mongoose who didn't want to fight cobras. If he didn't want to fight anything else, it was his own business, but it was the duty of every mongoose to kill cobras or be killed by cobras.


"Why?" asked the peacelike mongoose, and the word went around that the strange new mongoose was not only pro-cobra and anti-mongoose but intellectually curious and against the ideals and traditions of mongooism.


"He is crazy," cried the young mongoose's father.


"He is sick," said his mother.


"He is a coward," shouted his brothers.

"He is a mongoosexual," whispered his sisters.


Strangers who had never laid eyes on the peacelike mongoose remembered that they had seen him crawling on his stomach, or trying on cobra hoods, or plotting the violent overthrow of Mongoosia.


"I am trying to use reason and intelligence," said the strange new mongoose.


"Reason is six-sevenths of treason," said one of his neighbors.


"Intelligence is what the enemy uses," said another.


Finally, the rumor spread that the mongoose had venom in his sting, like a cobra, and he was tried, convicted by a show of paws, and condemned to banishment.



Moral: Ashes to ashes, and clay to clay, if the enemy doesn't get you, your own folks may.




sadly, the people who most need to here this story probably wouldn't understand it; i wonder if the word moral might have something to do with it?


mike/

if we live in a mad world...

as the wingnuts so gleefully like to exclaim, my question is

who made it that way?

just asking...

the former vice-president...

i love the way that Chris Matthews pronounces his name - Cheeney.

just listening to the excerpts from his speechifying today at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank [an oxyomoron?] i wish the man would just go away.

i realize that i'm a small cog in the wheel of Republicans and Democrats who wish the same thing.

Cheeney is so over the top he borders on mental. that anyone can believe that it is right to harm another person for any reason is beyond me.

he says that he saved thousands of lives with this actions; he says the safety of the U.S. was strengthened because of his actions; and he believes that what he did is forgivable.

it's not.

he is diminished in his humanity and he has diminished the humanity of the country.

if he were a priest, i'd use the line i've used in several previous posts - here...

SCOTUS 5-4 ruling on detainee abuse...

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the majority in the 5-to-4 decision, said a lawsuit filed by the man, Javaid Iqbal, must be dismissed at a preliminary stage because he failed to allege a plausible link between the officials’ conduct and the abuses he said he had suffered.

Justices Turn Back Ex-Detainee’s Suit Over Prison Abuses
New York Times, May 18, 2009

not a surprise. i think we should continue to see this over the next several years, at least.

Mr. Bush and the wingers made sure of that by nominating and pushing through the likes of Roberts, Scalia, etc who are much younger than previous courts. The only promise of change would come if one of these people dies or resigns. we can't count on any one of them resigning, but death certainly is a viable option.

Mr. Obama has indicated that he wants to nominate a woman to replace Justice Souter. I think that a great idea. however, the nutters have already mobilized and put together their battle plan against anyone he nominates:

WASHINGTON — If President Obama nominates Judge Diane P. Wood to the Supreme Court, conservatives plan to attack her as an “outspoken” supporter of “abortion, including partial-birth abortion.”

If he nominates Judge Sonia Sotomayor, they plan to accuse her of being “willing to expand constitutional rights beyond the text of the Constitution.”

And if he nominates Kathleen M. Sullivan, a law professor at Stanford, they plan to denounce her as a “prominent supporter of homosexual marriage.”

Preparing to oppose the confirmation of Mr. Obama’s eventual choice to succeed Justice David H. Souter, who is retiring, conservative groups are working together to stockpile ammunition. Ten memorandums summarizing their research, obtained by The New York Times, provide a window onto how they hope to frame the coming debate.

Conservatives Map Strategies on Court Fight
New York Times, May 16, 2009

at this point, i would bet that they would oppose Jesus if he were the nominee, especially with Republican Leader Steele saying they don't want anyone who shows empathy. [see today's Washington Times: GOP Gearing Up to Assail Nominee]

i'm not sure they could find anyone more empathetic than Jesus. JC even forgave lepers and prostitutes. [maybe that's why the David Vitter's and other repubs are okay about using their services? i've not thought of that before.]

so, i think it is going to be a long time before the makeup of SCOTUS really makes a turn. the only outside change would be if Justice Kennedy retires. HE is the usual swing vote on all of the 5-4 decisions for the last several years. only if he leaves early will the swing be towards the center or left.

tea parties...

when i first heard about these winger/Republican/christianist/nut tea parties i immediately thought about the ones that the Mad Hatter had in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonder Land and Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There.

i mean think about it. they are protesting tax increases... FOR THE RICH!

well, here's some news for them. Obama has not had any tax plan passed as yet. what they are protesting is the tax plan that Mr. Bush put into effect, where he lowered the tax rate for the wealthiest people in the world and stuck it to the middle class! i don't think that these people are smart enough to understand this.

the tea parties were touted by the Republican leadership that doesn't know what its left hand is doing with its ass.

what are these people thinking? are they just so out of their minds that they will just let the Fox mumble-mouths and Tsar Rush* talk them into anything because of their hate and bigotry. that's exactly what's happening. they are lemmings. they don't think; they follow the party line - no matter what it is that is shoved down their throats.

and i'm serious about bigotry being one of the elements behind what's happening. i strongly believe at the core and heart of it all is white racism because of Obama's background and this is the way they can avoid the word racism!

they want to work on everyone's fear but it's their own unfounded fears that fuel their low-stoked fires and the leadership of the minority party and its spook-miesters know that full well.

they repeatedly talk about Obama putting socialism into place when, if you look at the majority of the protesters you might notice they are probably over 65. they are part of the largest socialistic program not only in the U.S. but in the world - Medicare

i would love to see a Republican lawmaker in the House or Senate bring a bill to the floor to do away with Medicare because it is a socialist program. something tells me that there would no longer be a Republican Party in existence.

talk about obfuscation...



Maxx thought i said pee party!
might as well have...


*i first wrote King Rush for Limbaugh but it dawned on me when i typed it that what he is after is replacing Tsar George. if there hadn't been a term limit on the presidency, ole Rush could have been in the planning stage of a Kremlinesque coup. think about it...

the use of fear in the United States...

I would also add hatred, but it would be an oxymoron because hatred is being used to promote the fear.

It's taken me awhile to digest a report at Media Matters from November 13, 2008 -

Women, minorities, autistic children: Conservative radio's vitriol not reserved for Obama

by Eric Boehlert and Jamison Foser on their blog County Fair that is part of the broader Media Matters site.

Today, there was a follow-up to the report - Homophobic Hate Speech "More Than Offensive" - on County Fair that addresses the specific reaction to the LGBTQ venom that the conservative right-wing media spreads.

LGBTQ is only a part of the initial report. It includes smears against immigrants, sex & gender, race and ethnicity, the poor, "those with HIV/AIDS, people with autism, teachers, other radio hosts, comedians perceived as progressive, Democrats in the House and Senate, and the organizations that document their attacks."

Just one example cited in the article by ultra-conservative radio blatherer Michael Savage on his show The Savage Nation:

... Democratic Party's "membership is made up largely of minority blocs ... that are all against the white person..."

Racist, sexist, homophopic, anti-Latino, and all blatant and non-apologetic. All men, and women, are not created equal to these people. No matter what the Declaration of Independence nor the Constitution of the United States say, even though these men quote and spout it at every turn as justification for what they say.

Every member of the right-wing media has one thing in common. They all profess to be christian.

Yet when you read the article, listen to these people talk and hear the quotes from not only Savage but others like G. Gordon Liddy, Mark Levin, or Bill Cunningham, you see the blatant blindness they have to the law set down by their Jesus in the gospel of Luke,10: 25–37. There is no love in their words; there is no acceptance in their thinking; nor is there any "Go and do likewise."

These people spread fear and hatred in order to maintain their false sense of power. They are losing hold on what they know, deep down in their psyches, is no longer applicable. We no longer live in a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant world. The christian nation they so highly tout has created a world that wants what they have, and they are fighting to keep it away from them. These radio personalities speak out of both sides of their mouths - at the same time.

I recommend that you click on the links to the Media Matters report and today's follow-up. It is long and at times difficult to read without getting angry, but it puts into one place the hypocrisy and an accurate description of these people as the pharisees of today's world.

These men, and they are all men, are not ignorant; they are not stupid; they are idiots. An idiot, according to a group of fourth graders I taught one year, is someone who is too stupid to know they are ignorant.

fourth graders! that would be nine & ten-year olds...

cause of "financial crisis" explained... finally...

Fundamentalists blame Wall Street's woes on gays

some of the signs...

"In a September 25th blog post titled 'The Nation Will Right Itself If It Fixes Sex', Christian Civil League of Maine Executive Director Michael Heath writes that the financial crisis facing Wall Street is a symptom of America's sinful sexual culture, including the acceptance of gay unions...."

and

"A related post by Center for Immigration Studies Executive Director Mark Krikorian at the National Review's website pushes a similar theme, this time focusing on Friday's failure of WaMu.

Krikorian suggests the big bank failed because it was too accommodating to minorities, including gays, African-Americans and Hispanics...."

and here i thought that queers only caused terrorist attacks and hurricanes.

you learn something new every day.

never realized how much power we actually have.

i wonder if the House failing to pass the bailout bill yesterday is part of the conspiracy?

just asking...

right-wingnuts may be, umm, right...

from today's Chicago Sun-Times:

North Carolina Democrat accused of satanic rituals — husband charged with rape

URHAM, N.C. -- Durham County Democratic Party officials are shocked about allegations that a local Democratic leader was involved in satanic rituals that included shackling people to beds, caging them, and depriving them of food and water.

Joy Johnson, 30, a third vice chairwoman of the county Democratic party and vice chairwoman of the Young Democrats, was charged Friday with two counts of aiding and abetting.

wait! a question...

can satanic worshipers/religions qualify for faith-based governmental initiatives?

just asking...

big guns coming from both sides...

SCOTUS today decided to hear a case that directly considers the right of an individual to own, carry, use a gun.

The Supreme Court announced today that it would l decide whether the Constitution grants individuals the right to keep guns in their homes for private use, plunging the justices headlong into a divisive and long-running debate over how to interpret the Second Amendment’s guarantee of the “right of the people to keep and bear arms.”The New York Times

The issue has long been undecided and both sides of it have constantly fought for their stand. The last case was some 70 years ago and the Court limited it using the word militia as the key to its decision, declaring that an individual did not have a right to keep arms.

The Constitution has one statement - A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. Amendment II.

Does it mean that the States have the right to have militias who are armed or can people directly arm themselves as part of militia. The Second Amendment does lay itself open to both interpretation.

The case itself comes from a resident of Washington D.C. who believes that she has the right to own a gun for protection while the city has banned ownership. She believes that she has the right to safeguard herself and her family from the high rate of crime in the District.

Of course, the issue has been greatly complicated by two things. The Constitution uses the word States. This case is not from a state. It's from the District of Columbia. Hairsplitting, but a big distinction. The other complication is broader - emotion.

Police Departments, especially, want guns controlled for not only their own protection but the general citizenry itself. Here in Chicago, not a week goes by that another child is shot and killed. Most of the weapons used are not legally purchased or registered. The vast majority of the killings are done by other children. This same things happens in all major cities.

The National Rifle Association is on the opposite side. They want no control of guns. They use the reason that hunting is a sport that is enjoyed by many and, if guns were outlawed, then the sport would die. Of course, just the name of the organization limits in what it believes. Hunting is done with rifles. The organization has never supported using Uzis or 9 mm Lugers for hunting game. They even state that it would be unfair to the game. Yet, they do not want any restrictions, using the argument that when you ban one kind of gun it is only one step away from outlawing them all.

So, SCOTUS will now decide by sometime next summer. The decision has to finally be made. The interpretation has to come about concerning the Second Amendment. This problem is not. The problem is the Court that is hearing the case.

This is not the Court that should consider the issue of gun ownership. It is too ideologically stacked. It is the exact thing that the neoconservatives and the Bush/Cheney administration have been working so hard to accomplish. This Court has been politicized. The majority on the Court have an agenda that reflects what the neocons have been working on for 20 some years.

The Court that should be hearing this case, and others like it (for example, a woman's right to decide what to do with her own body) should be a court that has no political agenda, owes no unspoken favors to anyone, or keeps a judicial open mind with no polemics.

The process of government is what might really be at stake here. If the Court cannot deal with this case in an open mind, the Right, again, has weakened the Constitution.

Shakespeare Outs Hamlet...

In a rare public appearance William Shakespeare told curious questioners that Hamlet was gay for the entire play. Actually, for his entire life. He thought that it would have been obvious to anyone observing Hamlet's rejection of Ophelia and his oedipal fixation on his mother, Gertrude.

"ALL" of them were...

Caught Ann Coulter on MSNBC spewing some of her vitriol today. [by accident, purely, by accident.] I can't remember who the reporter was, but she said to Coulter as an introduction to a question, "Some of your books have been on the top 10 list...." Coulter instantly cut her off and emphatically said, "ALL of them have been." The reporter tried to continue as though she was non-plussed until Coulter repeated it again. Not once, but twice.

The reporter, at this point, had a look on her face that was saying, "You f***ing b****," but her response was something to the point of, "If that's what you say. [Whatever]." She just continued to the interview but it was obvious that she couldn't wait to get Coutler's face off the camera. She remained polite.

Whatever the point Coulter was trying to make was lost. I haven't the faintest idea what she was talking about. All I remember was the above exchange, and it struck me that Coulter will do anything for self-aggrandizement. She was condescending and superior in demeanor - a complete phony.

i just wish someone would ask her to take her mask off. halloween isn't for another 21 days...

boo...

Comment: one good thing could happen with the Craig situation...

at least we can hope.

Sen. Craig is getting a taste of what we all have to go through, of what people think we are, of what people say and do to us because of who we are, and of how we are kept as second-class citizens being denied all the same rights of everyone else. The least response of all these beliefs is the fact that we are proven guilty before we are even accused.

Whether Sen. Craig is gay or not, as I have said in previous post, is no of concern to me. Personally, I don't think that he is gay. To be gay one has to embrace the LGBT community and all it is. Freely choose. Obviously, he does not choose.

LGBT is often referred to as the third sex. From things I've been reading lately and thinking myself, maybe there is a fourth sex - those either male or female who participate in same-sex actions just for its own sake and pleasure without identifying as anything. After all, from what has been reported lately, the majority of the men arrested and charged in the kind of escapade of which Sen. Craig is accused, are usually married with families.

Some LGBT activitists say that these men are merely denying that they are gay. They are conflicted. They are afraid. Maybe some are. What if, I say if, they do not see themselves as gay? Couldn't it be that they are only sexual and indiscriminate? They have sex with whomever is available just to have sex. It's possible.

Yes, they lead a lonely life when it comes to this aspect of it. They chose it. They live in constant fear of being discovered while engaging in public sex because it adds to the thrill along with the possibility of getting caught. Who knows.

I believe that people, like Sen. Craig, lend an evil and disparaging picture on those of us who embrace the LGBT moniker and are proud of it. They are not worth my time and, if the main stream media and right wingnuts want to waste their own energies in pointing loudly at them, let them. We will prevail because of our strength and courage.

I am proud that the majority of LGBT media and blogs have actually supported Sen. Craig this past couple of weeks. It would be hypocritical on our part if we were to attack him for who/what he is - gay or not. Just as the Christianists say, "Hate the sin, love the sinner," we should hate the despicable stands that men and women like Craig take to discriminate openly against others, but we must defend them for being who/what they are. Whatever that is.

The good thing that could happen with the Craig incident? I hope that Sen. Craig may understand how we actually have to go through the things we do and to change both his opinions and his actions because of it. He may begin to show some small glimmer of sympathy, to understand that we are not monsters as the wingnuts preach, to realize that we are some one's sons and daughters, and to stand and protect the rights of all citizens of the the United States no matter who they are, what they believe or what they do.

I said hope.

I believe in the Hopi adage that, "When hope is gone, life is over."

I refuse to give up hope...

o'reilly factor tonight...

This outta be a good one.

The O'Reilly Factor on FOX will be telling An inside look at the YearlyKos convention: What happened inside the YearlyKos convention? and, since O'Reilly won't even be on the show tonight, the story is going to be reported by none other than Michelle Malkin!

Funny, I don't remember seeing her there. And if she was, I know a lot of others would have let it be known. Actually, the only FOX presence I saw at YKos was a camera with the local logo on it, and that was at Hillary Clinton's break-out session.

I know there were non-progressives at the convention in their James Bond mode. I suggest that there were trolls at the convention for two reasons. First is the incident at General Wesley Clark's session when a commenter approached the microphone in full military uniform that is against not only the Uniform Code of Military Justice but the law as well. Of course, the wingnuts are making a big deal of that. [Right Winger Sites Manufacture Controversy to Smear YKos]

Second, I sat next to a couple of people who reacted to absolutely nothing that was being said by Howard Dean during his keynote on Thursday night. Yeah, the one thing I know is no one is able to just sit through a Howard Dean speech - good or bad. He makes everyone react. This was strange behaviour to me because the rest of the room was totally on its feet more that once and they just sat there. Oh, and one of them had a little recorder he was trying to hide while the other one was jotting down notes from time to time.

It's no big deal to me. People can do whatever they want as long as it doesn't hurt anyone. As far as I could tell, no one was hurt. I certainly wasn't; I was amused.

i just hope that their covert attendance at the convention was FISA approved. It was before Congress passed the surveillance bill Friday night and Saturday morning.

i'm using the DVR to record Billo's show. Keith Olbermann is more important. Besides, Keith may have something to say about it too...