Severe Memories

I'm sure the Obama campaign was saving this video for just this moment when the last viable challenger to dropped out and Millionaire Mitt would be just itchin' to Etch-a-Sketch his way to being perceived as a "centrist." But just in case anyone forgets, here comes the hostile branding:



So do you think Willard's dismal numbers against Barack will improve...or erode even further by the time we reach Election Day in November?

War on Women - or Humanity?

What the hell is going through the heads of the GOP candidates and leaders, if only from a political standpoint. You only want the votes of women who are against the right to control their own bodies? (And I don't just mean on the right to end an unwanted pregnancy.)

View the devastation:

Willard Mitt Romney is the so-called "moderate" in the GOP Presidential race, but it's time the press woke up to his wildly extremist positions:

How easily it rolls off his tongue: "Planned Parenthood -- gonna get rid of that." First off, it's a private organization, so he's going to "get rid of that?" Second, the use of "that" indicates how far he's distanced from Planned Parenthood -- and the huge amount of good it does for women who don't get health services in other ways. And, finally, there's that good it does; Willard willing to dismiss it/cut it without a second thought? Who the hell's life is he trying to make better as President? No one but himself (and his fellow 1-percenters)?

Willard has veered so far into extremism that he won't even stand by his positions from the previous Presidential race:

And how testy that guy gets when challenged. Is this the guy who's finger should be on the nuclear trigger?

The fact is that the Affordable Care Act is already working. So what this election is really all about, as George Lakoff so insightfully puts it, is a radical Conservative revision of this nation:

The Santorum Strategy is not just about Santorum. It is about pounding the most radical conservative ideas into the public mind by constant repetition during the Republican presidential campaign, whether by Santorum himself, by Gingrich or Ron Paul, by an intimidated Romney, or by the Republican House majority. The Republican presidential campaign is about a lot more than the campaign for the presidency. It is about guaranteeing a radical conservative future for America.

...

Liberals tend to underestimate the importance of public discourse and its effect on the brains of our citizens. All thought is physical. You think with your brain. You have no alternative. Brain circuitry strengthens with repeated activation. And language, far from being neutral, activates complex brain circuitry that is rooted in conservative and liberal moral systems. Conservative language, even when argued against, activates and strengthens conservative brain circuitry. This is extremely important for so-called "independents," who actually have both conservative and liberal moral systems in their brains and can shift back and forth. The more they hear conservative language over the next eight months, the more their conservative brain circuitry will be strengthened.

...

The radical conservative discourse of the Republican presidential race has the same purpose, and conservative Republicans are luring Democrats into making the same mistakes. Santorum, the purest radical conservative, is the best example. From the perspective of conservative moral values, he is making sense and arguing logically, making his moral values clear and coming across as straightforward and authentic, as Reagan did.

Lakoff goes on to describe the differences between the Progressive moral worldview and the Conservative one. It's very much worth reading as a whole, particularly when he shows how the Democrats may be missing the point and, even if they win the Presidency this year, may lose other office elections and the overall, long-term war. And he lays out the Conservative "logic" that leads to the decimation of critical governmental programs and safeguards that actually help Americans:

Here's how that logic goes.

• The strict father determines what happens in the family, including reproduction. Thus reproduction is the province of male authority.
• The strict father does not condone moral weakness and self-indulgence without moral consequences. Sex without reproductive consequences is thus seen as immoral.
• If the nation supports birth control for unmarried women, then the nation supports immoral behavior.
• The conservative stress on individual responsibility means that you and no one else should have to pay for your birth control -- not your employer, your HMO, or the taxpayers.
• Having to pay for your birth control also has a metaphorical religious value -- paying for your sins.
• This is a classical slippery slope narrative. If no one else should have to pay for your birth control, the next step is that no one else should have to pay for any of your health care.
• And the step after that is that no one else should be forced to pay for anyone else. This is, everything should be privatized -- no public education, safety nets, parks, or any public institutions or services.

It's war. On who is a great question -- because it isn't just women, no matter how much they are the target at the moment. If these GOoPers get in, kiss all the advances from the Affordable Care Act goodbye.

It's shaping up to be the most pivotal election of our era.

More from the Death Eaters

It's like the evil characters in Harry Potter that work for Valdomort: they cheer death:

This was the CNN/Tea Party Debate. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the teabaggers are the most bloodthirsty Republicans of all (is that possible?) but they do worship their own self-righteous anger.

A vote for a Republican is a vote to dismantle the Federal government's ability to help we the people. The only winners will be the mega corps, the mega churches and mega defense. It's a vote for more and earlier death for our aged and infirm, our sickened no matter how suddenly, our children through the environment and educational neglect.

And CNN decides to partner up with this staunch political group. The John Birch Society, mainstreamed by our media.

Backstabbers in their Midst

Great Josh Marshall piece on the instant implosion of the New Gingrich campaign barely days after its announcement. His biggest mistake doesn't seem to be calling President Obama the "biggest food stamp President" which is just heinous with identity politics, but that he called Paul Ryan's Medicare elimination plan "Conservative social engineering" and "too radical" for America. (Hey, that sounded like surprising sanity to me.) It's been a particularly wild firestorm:

And now it comes out that this afternoon Newt was compelled to personally call Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) to apologize for questioning and criticizing Ryan's Medicare phase-out plan. And his spokesman publicly stated that Newt apologized. Publicly. On the record. Voluntarily.

I mean, wow. Watching TV just now, I see that South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) is now lashing out at Gingrich as some sort of GOP health care policy traitor.

What's breathtaking about this isn't just the reckless ridiculousness. That's Newt's trademark. But I can only imagine Newt's mortification. This is a man of no little ego. Whatever else you want to say about Gingrich, he is a genuinely historic figure in the history of American politics. And he's called on the carpet and has to apologize to these newcomers who couldn't have been out of their 20s when he was in his early 90s heyday?

I can only imagine.

It's all about fear, as Josh points out, which is exactly what Obama was saying in the last election (and Bill Clinton the decade before that): hope vs. fear. And all the GOP are terrified, mainly of their own Party. After all, Dems don't scare them. Case in point, per TPM:

"If 90 percent of the oncological community said something was causing cancer we'd listen to them," former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman told Time in a new interview. "I respect science and the professionals behind the science so I tend to think it's better left to the science community - though we can debate what that means for the energy and transportation sectors."

The reaction to that little nugget was about as you'd expect.

Never mind that Huntsman also backs off his past support for cap-and-trade in the interview, or that he basically says that while climate change is a problem, it's not one that America should deal with until after the economy recovers (both standard GOP talking points). It's his basic understanding of the concept that human-caused climate change is real -- and even worse, that maybe something should be done to stop it -- that caused a stir on Tuesday.

...

Over at RedState, Daniel Horowitz wrote that Huntsman's views on climate change's human origins were just another piece of the Huntsman which conservatives have found less than palatable thanks to his moderate views on gay rights (he's for civil unions) and the uncomfortable fact that until this month he was a full-fledged member of the Obama administration.

The interview Huntsman gave to Time "can only mean that he is seeking the VP nomination for a Mike Bloomberg ticket," Horowitz wrote.

Fear of betrayal, core of Conservative paranoia.

Hence purity tests.

GOP Conservative Tea Partying Hate Mongers

They love branding their Democratic and Liberal enemies as "Hitler" while acting like little Goebbels themselves. Hard to say who the worst is, but the current king seems to be Glenn "Protocols of Zion" Beck:

Nazi propaganda called Jews drahtzieher—wire-pullers. They constitute a power above and beyond ordinary government authority. “There is a super-government which is allied to no government, which is free from them all, and yet which has its hand in them all,” Henry Ford wrote in The International Jew.

If you know this history, you’ll understand why Glenn Beck’s two-part “exposé” on George Soros, whom Beck calls “The Puppet Master,” was so shocking, even by Beck’s degraded standards. The program, which aired Tuesday and Wednesday, was a symphony of anti-Semitic dog-whistles. Nothing like it has ever been on American television before.

...

Beck’s implication is that there was something sinister in Soros’ support for anti-communist civil society organizations in the former Soviet Union. Further, he sees such support as evidence that Soros will engineer a communist coup here in the United States. This kind of thinking only makes sense within the conspiratorial mind-set of classic anti-Semitism, in which Jews threaten all governments equally. And as a wealthy Jew with a distinct Eastern European accent, Soros is a perfect target for such theories.

You can read The Daily Beast piece and see for yourself how Beck smears Soros. But he's not alone in his prejudiced hate mongering. There's a hate-spewing Jewish woman herself, from Florida, with a radio following, who was slated to be Chief of Staff for a newly-elected Representative - until her words sparked plans for violence:

As you might recall, someone emailed Kaufman's radio station, WFTL, declaring that he or she was planning a violent act against some kind of government building, possibly a school. A phone call to the station yesterday, from a woman identifying herself as the e-mailer's wife, later warned that this man could potentially commit a terrorist act against a public school. That prompted a countywide lock down of all public schools.

The local Fox affiliate since reported that the threat-maker had said he was inspired by none other than Joyce Kaufman, who had received publicity in the last few days for her previous calls for violent action against the government in order to protect citizens from the tyranny of the Obama administration.

...

The negative publicity had centered around video of comments that Kaufman had made at a Tea Party rally this past Independence Day, on how to change a government that has become destructive of the people's rights: "And then the Founding Fathers were ever so brilliant -- and I don't care how this gets painted by the mainstream media, I don't care if this shows up on YouTube, because I am convinced that the most important thing the Founding Fathers did to ensure me my First Amendment rights was they gave a Second Amendment. And if ballots don't work, bullets will."

Pure evil. She'll probably become a Fox commentator now that she gotten her publicity.

And, of course, there's Massa Limbaugh:

"We've got the Democrats worried that Clyburn's getting the shaft because he's not going to have a car, he's not going to have a driver, he's not going to have security, he's not going to have any of the stroke, or the perks," Limbaugh said. "A white, racist leadership of the Democrat party trying to ace out Clyburn." Limbaugh got his information on Clyburn's driver from Martin Frost, who appeared on MSNBC.

...

"Clyburn's new position: driving Ms. Nancy," Limbaugh said. "He's not in the back of the bus, he's in the driver's seat. And she's in the back of the car being chauffeured."

Racist fucks. Rabble-rousing hucksters all. The fact that mainstream media hasn't called them out, that their networks and stations haven't fired them, that the public outcry isn't huge, is what our times are all about. Fake news, faux controversies, Southern strategy in bloom.

Watch out, America. They're eating your soul.

Truth Will Out

So much for Tea Party principles. Rand Paul has flipped his flop for earmarks, as any politician interested in re-election will do from the day they're sworn in:

One Tea Party hero, Senator-elect Rand Paul (R-KY), jumped on the anti-earmark bandwagon early, making “a ban on wasteful earmark spending in Washington D.C. one of the key points of his campaign” in March. Lambasting lawmakers who opt for “photo-ops with oversized fake cardboard checks,” Paul vowed to “dismantle the culture of professional politicians” even if he “ruffled a lot of establishment feathers” while doing it.

But after joining the GOP flock on Election Day, Paul is singing a different tune. In a Wall Street Journal profile this weekend, Paul signaled an about-face on his earmark position, committing to “fight for Kentucky’s share of earmarks and federal pork.”

Truth will out: Texas conservatives suck at governing, and their state is about to feel massive, massive pain:

Texas faces a budget crisis of truly daunting proportions, with lawmakers likely to cut sacrosanct programs such as education for the first time in memory and to lay off hundreds if not thousands of state workers and public university employees.

Texas' GOP leaders, their eyes on the Nov. 2 election, have played down the problem's size, even as the hole in the next two-year cycle has grown in recent weeks to as much as $24 billion to $25 billion. That's about 25 percent of current spending.

The gap is now proportionately larger than the deficit California recently closed with cuts and fee increases, its fourth dose of budget misery since September 2008.

Maybe if Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) can somehow (as he's asking) succeed his state from Social Security and Medicare, he can finish turning it into a Third World state. The potential upside: illegal immigrants fleeing across the border back into Mexico. With plenty of Texans following.

The best thing may have happened -- best for President Obama and the future Democratic Majority. Now he can even get tough on Don't Ask Don't Tell repeal.

Now with an opposition force screwing up in the House daily, he's got everything he needs to run against in 2012.

Good vs. Evil

On one side, President Obama comes out for the Constitutional right of Freedom of Religion in the U.S.:

Recently, attention has been focused on the construction of mosques in certain communities - particularly in New York. Now, we must all recognize and respect the sensitivities surrounding the development of lower Manhattan. The 9/11 attacks were a deeply traumatic event for our country. The pain and suffering experienced by those who lost loved ones is unimaginable. So I understand the emotions that this issue engenders. Ground Zero is, indeed, hallowed ground.

But let me be clear: as a citizen, and as President, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country. That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country, and will not be treated differently by their government, is essential to who we are. The writ of our Founders must endure.

On the other side, the fear-mongering, Anti-Constitutional, opportunistic scum:

New York's Conservative Party is planning a television ad campaign to pressure a New York City utility to use its power to block a proposed mosque near ground zero that the ad says is planned by an "un-American" Muslim leader.

The ad states "patriotic Americans" want "real answers" about the cultural center proposed for lower Manhattan in a building partly owned by Consolidated Edison. Plans call for the Muslim center to include a mosque in the building about two blocks from the Sept. 11, 2001, attack.

The ad asks viewers to contact the utility, which has more than 3 million customers, at a phone number provided on screen and is the first effort to try to get customers to target the company.

The Conservative Party's statewide ad to begin running next week says Republican candidate for governor Rick Lazio, the Conservative nominee, is asking the right questions about the effort and who or what groups will fund it.

Yep. Any chance to create a fake issue, run it through their rightwing noise machine cycles, try to stir up hatred and division, appeal to the lowest impulses of human nature, and create more misery than they already have with their economic policies.

All this drummed up, sanctimonious, hypocritical outrage is tiresome already to me. Might it be that for rest of our nation as well?

Teachable Moment

More like this, please:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

We're in a rare seismic moment where something so horrific is happening that there's no way to hide the reality. Time for a major change, including manufacturing and behavior. Are we citizens first or are we consumers first? Is there a common good where we must come together to preserve this world for our children, or do we just grab whatever we can, build whatever security we can, and have our families hole up until the earth falls off its axis and mass suicide becomes the only logical alternative?

One thing I've read recently is how bad we are at imagining and preparing for the low-likelihood, high impact events, like the mortgage meltdown and deep-water oil exploration disaster. I feel like we were better at it in the middle of the 20th Century, but somehow we've grown so over reliant on technology, easy credit, comfort and Hollywood special effects that we're no longer preparing for the worst.

This is essentially a conservative argument in the classic sense rather than the mutated version of today. Conservatism shouldn't be "Drill, baby, drill," like some entitled moron, but conserve, baby, conserve. Conserve investments, conserve the planet, prepare for the seven lean years instead of, as Bush/Cheney did, spent everything saved during the seven fat years (when Clinton/Gore ran up a surplus).

While there's spending now to shore up our nation's populace during this horrific period of unemployment, caused by the policies of the previous eight years as well as practices begun under the Clinton Administration all the way back to the wildly irresponsible Reagan deregulation of the financial markets, in some sense President Obama is the last best hope for a conservative future, small "c." His handling of his personal life -- steadfast in marriage, writes his own books, self-made man, concern for community going back to his early organizer days -- is exemplary from a conservative viewpoints.

Moreso than, say, a GOP gubernatorial candidate in South Carolina.

Still More Hate

How angry (and dangerous) are the conservatives? Well, you've got a doctor in Florida who has hung a sign on his door saying that if you voted for Obama, don't bother returning as one of his patients. F'real. Then you've got a conservative group threatening thirty governors to leave office within three days or be removed. Ominous.

Best of all, you have Erick Erickson, radical rightwing editor of the litmus-test conservative RedState blog, who was inexplicably hired by CNN to provide "balance" (to who, Mother Theresa?), and threatened shotgun violence against U.S. Census workers on his radio show yesterday:

I’m not filling out this form. I dare them to try and come throw me in jail. I
dare them to. Pull out my wife’s shotgun and see how that little ACS twerp likes
being scared at the door. They’re not going on my property. They can’t do that.
They don’t have the legal right, and yet they’re trying.

Nice way to break telegraph breaking the law, Erick. Anyone care to wager now long before CNN puts him on waivers?

Firing Up

I'm loving that President Obama (writing that never gets old) is back in closer mode, just as he would do in the Democratic primaries and campaign when everyone thought he had somehow blown it. Pass that health care bill, D.C.!

And I love how Markos Moulitsas calls out self-righteous Dennis Kucinich for "making common cause" with the GOP in stating that he's voting against reform. Sure, it isn't pure enough. Sure, there's a mandate that will help insurance companies deal with having to take in the unhealthy as well. But he'll deserve to be primaried by Kos Nation.

I'll say it one last time, if there's no start, then there's no eventual reform of the reform, no building on the legislative landmark as with Social Security (which only covered like a third of Americans at the start), or my personal favorite, the Emancipation Proclamation, in which Lincoln freed the slaves "in the states in rebellion," i.e. The Confederacy where he wasn't currently in control, rather than the Union. However, it both set a benchmark to move up from, and also told the slaves that they would never be prosecuted in the North for checking out of the plantation without their sadistic master's permission.

And I'm LOVING White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs firing back at smug, whiny-ass Chief Justice John Roberts, the least distinguished Chief Justice in history, just taking dictation from The Federalist Society of corporatist Conservative ideologues in squeaking out asshole decisions like giving corporations the same rights as citizens, i.e. the right to use their untold billions to buy candidates. Roberts is one of the most dangerous men in America, a robot installed to lead our top court.

Ideally he's forced to step down in the middle of President Obama's second term.

And back to Barack (hey, that sounds like an album title!), he's clearly feeling it on the stump. I mean, he's got to be so fired up he's gotta be making shit up now on the stump. How else to explain his sudden embrace of the populist notion (although this is the first I've heard of it -- manufactured?) of having "high-tech bounty hunters" solve the healthcare fraud problem:

The White House released details of the anti-fraud plan hours after a fresh challenge to the administration from major business groups that unveiled a multimillion-dollar ad campaign arguing that under Obama's plan "health care costs will go even higher, making a bad economy worse."

The ad buy, costing between $4 million and $10 million, will start Wednesday on national cable TV outlets. Later in the week, the campaign shifts to 17 states home to moderate and conservative Democrats. Their votes are critical to Obama's endgame for passing legislation to expand coverage to millions who now lack it and revamp the health insurance system...

...The bounty hunters in this case would be private auditors armed with sophisticated computer programs to scan Medicare and Medicaid billing data for patterns of bogus claims. The auditors would get to keep part of any funds they recover for the government. The White House said a pilot program run by Medicare in California, New York and Texas recouped $900 million for taxpayers from 2005-2008.

Oh, yeah. America loves when Barack goes cowboy.

He's the Robert Downey President.

Oink

The family of little Sarah Palin used to sneak across the border from Alaska to Canada to take advantage of their socialized health care system. Which would count as hypocrisy, if Palin could spell the word:

"We used to hustle over the border for health care we received in Canada," Palin said in her first Canadian appearance since stepping down as governor of Alaska. "And I think now, isn't that ironic?"

If she can spell ironic.

Meanwhile, big ol' Karl Rove is still peddling lies in his new "memoir." The summary (with full details at Media Matters):

1. Rove distorts Senate report to claim Bush didn't "lie us into the war"

2. Rove falsehood: Obama claims "Obamacare would not add to the deficit ... evidence shows just the opposite"

3. Rove revives tired smear that Gore wrongly said "that he had created the Internet"

4. Rove revives Gore-Love Story smear

5. Rove falsehood: Gore said he had "discovered the Love Canal chemical disaster"

6. Rove pals around with falsehood that Ayers was "Obama's great friend"

7. Rove wrong on number of presidents who left office by "assassination or resignation"

Lastly, spawn of Satan herself, Liz Cheney, is even pissing off Conservatives with her newfangled McCarthyist smears:

A group of 19 prominent Bush administration officials and other lawyers launched an offensive Monday, attacking Liz Cheney for a recent ad by her group, Keep America Safe, that questioned the loyalties of Department of Justice lawyers that had represented Guantanamo detainees.

In a statement signed by nine former Bush officials and 10 other lawyers, critics condemned the ads as a "shameful series of attacks...both unjust to the individuals in question and destructive of any attempt to build lasting mechanisms for counterterrorism adjudications."

We'll see again if the Washington press corps takes the Cheney family's dictation on this one.

Sheriff

Is Obama toughening up? He got Sen Richard Shelby (R-AL) to back the hell down and now 27 of the nominees the GOP were holding up for purely political reasons have been confirmed. The White House statement:

Today, the United States Senate confirmed 27 of my high-level nominees, many of whom had been awaiting a vote for months.

At the beginning of the week, a staggering 63 nominees had been stalled in the Senate because one or more senators placed a hold on their nomination. In most cases, these holds have had nothing to do with the nominee's qualifications or even political views, and these nominees have already received broad, bipartisan support in the committee process.

Instead, many holds were motivated by a desire to leverage projects for a Senator's state or simply to frustrate progress. It is precisely these kinds of tactics that enrage the American people.

And so on Tuesday, I told Senator McConnell that if Republican senators did not release these holds, I would exercise my authority to fill critically-needed positions in the federal government temporarily through the use of recess appointments. This is a rare but not unprecedented step that many other presidents have taken. Since that meeting, I am gratified that Republican senators have responded by releasing many of these holds and allowing 29 nominees to receive a vote in the Senate.

While this is a good first step, there are still dozens of nominees on hold who deserve a similar vote, and I will be looking for action from the Senate when it returns from recess. If they do not act, I reserve the right to use my recess appointment authority in the future.

Now that's the George Bushish stuff we don't mind having back. Y'see, it turns out the public is pissed off about the GOP abuse of the filibuster, to the point that a majority of Americans want the filibuster to go away. Per J.P. Green, G.O.P. stands for "Gridlock, Obstruction and Paralysis."

Now, I understand that the traditional role of Conservatism, per William Buckley, has been to "stand athwart history yelling, 'Stop!'" And while slowing down the political process may have its merits at times, certainly the failure of that movement in the face of Civil Rights, for example, is far from flattering to that philosophy.

History marches on whether or not the Right believes they can control it. What is the point of standing athwart Congress to stop health care reform when there's a locomotive running wild anyway -- the rising costs of health care, which the private sector is unable to stop. Just ask the individual subscribers to Anthem Blue Cross, as their premiums suddenly soar 39%.

Standing athwart or otherwise screwing up with a jobs bill under the guise of "bipartisanship" isn't going to stop history from evicting a family with unemployed parents out of a home. It won't stop history from starving them, either.

And standing athwart (who uses a word like that?) Congress to stop anti-climate change legislation isn't going to stop the Arctic Caps from melting.

Oh, and by the way, yes, you're winters may get more severe than ever before as well.

So here's to Obama acting the one role we expect every President to play if he wants to get re-elected and/or go down in history as a hero rather than a wimp. Party, leaning or ideology aside, we want someone who can not only give his word, but can enforce it.

C'mon, Barack. Let's make this 2010 a fun year.

Watergate Washouts

Bugging a Democratic Senator's office phone isn't quite what it used to be:

Federal officials charged four men on Tuesday with plotting to tamper with the telephone system in the New Orleans office of Senator Mary Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana. One of the men was a filmmaker who gained fame last year by secretly recording members of the community group Acorn giving him advice on how to set up a brothel.

All four of the men arrested Monday in New Orleans, each in his mid-20s, were charged with entering federal property under false pretenses with the intent of committing a felony, according to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana. They appeared in court on Tuesday,

If convicted, the four would face sentences ranging from a fine to 10 years in prison.

The filmmaker was James O’Keefe, 25, who has gained renown in conservative circles by poking fun at the left through pranks and undercover video...

...In September, Richard W. Rahn, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, wrote a column in The Washington Times hailing Mr. O’Keefe and Ms. Giles as examples of technologically savvy, “smart amateurs” who “with courage and good judgment are becoming effective investigative journalists.”

Mr. Rahn said Tuesday that he did not have enough information on Mr. O’Keefe’s arrest to offer a different assessment.

Dirty tricksters born forty years too late to work for Tricky Dick Nixon. Maybe G. Gordon Liddy will take them out to the woodshed?

Lovely

So the President spends a few hours in Copenhagen pitching for an Olympian economic stimulus for Chicago, and as he's flying back on Air Force One getting a briefing from our military man leading in Afghanistan, the U.S. loses in the first round of IOC voting, with Rio de Janeiro taking the gold for 2016 two rounds later.

As someone who has worked for three different television networks at three different Olympic Games, I have a vast fondness for the event and a little understanding of how such decisions are made. Rio was the right choice for several reasons: the first South American games in history, and the ability for the games to change the city, what with all the infrastructure that must be built over the next seven years, the money that will flow in and, yes, work its way down to local businesses and workers, and the pride it instills, putting the city on the map, looked at in a way it hasn't been before.

Madrid, Tokyo and Chicago can't make that claim for 2016.

Since all the other national leaders of contending cities showed up, I'm glad Obama went as well. Imagine the reaction if the result had been the same and he'd been the one who hadn't shown up. Yet for some reason, wait a minute, it's coming to me...yes, now I remember why so many conservatives and Republicans were gleefully celebrating America's loss of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games: their undisguised hatred of President Barack Obama. Stronger than their love of America. Perhaps revealing their hatred of America, i.e. the America of today and the future?

Check out this gathering of conservatives erupting into unanimous applause. This is the so-called Americans For Prosperity -- one of the main organizing groups behind the tea party protests -- yet they don't seem to be behind prosperity for Chicago in 2016:



Credit where credit is due: former GOP Representative Joe Scarborough thanks the President for trying. And sure, there are good reasons from a progressive standpoint to oppose Chicago winning the Olympics and be happy for the loss -- this way, no poor renters will be displaced by new Olympic stadiums and the city won't incur Olympian debt; but bottom line is that it's not as big a deal for Chicago to lose as it is for Rio to win.

Check out their celebration. With bonus Pele:



Now that's going to be a hell of a party in 2016.

Better Debate

Libertarian Jon Henke writes in his blog today about the need for the Right to disassociate itself from the crazies:

In the 1960's, William F. Buckley denounced the John Birch Society leadership for being "so far removed from common sense" and later said "We cannot allow the emblem of irresponsibility to attach to the conservative banner."

The Birthers are the Birchers of our time, and WorldNetDaily is their pamphlet. The Right has mostly ignored these embarrassing people and organizations, but some people and organizations inexplicably choose to support WND through advertising and email list rental or other collaboration.

I agree, although to my own detriment, as I did not find myself in agreement with Buckley very often but do think the Conservative Movement will be a lot more powerful again if it can follow Henke's prescription.

On the flip side, Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) shows not only how to chill out teabaggers with calm, sensible talk, but actually outlines in just under ten minutes most of the key issues in the health care/insurance reform debate, including the legitimate question of cost:



Good stuff -- Franken proving he's worthy of the office. Can you imagine Norm Coleman outlining the debate fairly, clearly, even while acknowledging the inherent complexities to be grapple with like this?

I didn't think so.

Hate Kings

Here's Paul Krugman calling out the discourse for what it is:

There is, however, one important thing that the D.H.S. report didn’t say: Today, as in the early years of the Clinton administration but to an even greater extent, right-wing extremism is being systematically fed by the conservative media and political establishment.

Now, for the most part, the likes of Fox News and the R.N.C. haven’t directly incited violence, despite Bill O’Reilly’s declarations that “some” called Dr. Tiller “Tiller the Baby Killer,” that he had “blood on his hands,” and that he was a “guy operating a death mill.” But they have gone out of their way to provide a platform for conspiracy theories and apocalyptic rhetoric, just as they did the last time a Democrat held the White House.

And at this point, whatever dividing line there was between mainstream conservatism and the black-helicopter crowd seems to have been virtually erased.

His examples feature devil Glenn Beck, who lied his ass off for hate violence again today, per Crooks and Liars:

Glenn Beck and his fellow wingnuts -- the ones who have been whipping up hysteria among their right-wing populist followers since Obama's election and before -- essentially announced they have no intention of reflecting on their roles in today's horrifying shooting at the Holocaust Museum in D.C.

They did this by doing what they always do whenever these situations arise: First call it all an "isolated incident" committed by a "lone nutcase" who just happens to be acting out beliefs emanating from their own quadrant. Then, when that fails, blame it on the Left.

Beck offered the following rationale on his Fox News show tonight:

Beck: What they're missing is: The pot in America is boiling. And this is just yet another warning to all Americans of things to come.

And this devil, also not intended to reflect:

Not to be outdone, Rush Limbaugh too declared Von Brunn "has more in common with the marchers and protesters we see at left-wing rallies," according to video just aired on MSNBC.

Then there's this response from the devil apologist for last week's terrorist -- blame Obama for the right-wing killers:

This afternoon, anti-abortion activist and former Operation Rescue leader Randall Terry went ahead with his second press conference in as many weeks at the National Press Club, the first of which was held in the immediate aftermath of the murder of Dr. George Tiller in Wichita, Kansas. As promised, there were hot wings and Guinness. But there was also an ominous warning that the Obama administration may be making more violent attacks "inevitable."

Joining the discourse more prominently than usual, this self-described right-wing extremist devil is on the record:

Former Drudge alter ego Andrew Breitbart thinks James von Brunn was a "multiculturalist just like the black studies and the lesbian studies majors on college campuses." How do we know? He left us an enraged voicemail! Go ahead, listen. Breitbart is angry that anyone would call a neo-Nazi a "right-wing extremist."

"It's such a fucking slander on people like me. This guy's political philosophy is more akin to the drivel that you hear on a college campuses that delineates us by group and not by individuality.... It's deeply offensive that you would use this for political gain."

Nothing like a proud, card-carrying right-wing extremist -- especially if your card comes from Liberty University, founded by Jerry Falwell:



The same "Liberty" University that has a problem with non-Republican free speech.

Funny how that works.

Say hello to out-in-the-open, over-the-airwaves, American homegrown fascism. If you disagree, it's on you to speak up.

Before it metastasizes.

Mad Tea Parties

`Take some more tea,' the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.
`I've had nothing yet,' Alice replied in an offended tone, `so I can't take more.'
`You mean you can't take less,' said the Hatter: `it's very easy to take more than nothing.'
`Nobody asked your opinion,' said Alice.
`Who's making personal remarks now?' the Hatter asked triumphantly.

- Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

I have little doubt that conditions could be building for the rise of a strong nativist fascist political movement in America, and that the FDR-like moves by the Obama Administration will only have a limited time to stay ahead of this threat. However, America has certain inherent safeguards that other more racially pure countries do not, i.e. racial diversity, so it may be tougher to form a majority coalition along such lines. So for now we have a very loud, very angry minority who are being used by wealthy Conservative forces, amplified by these forces, and in all likelihood organized by these forces from the get-go.

I'm referring to the so-called Tea Party movement. This supposed grassroots taxation revolt seems as ridiculous as a Mad Hatter's tea party, since the working class members will receive tax cuts under Obama, and the core protest would seem to be a return to Clinton era tax levels, i.e. a rise of 3% for the highest income bracket. But while more Liberal wags enjoy the self-identification of this group as "teabaggers" due to the street definition of the term, what's really going on is that corporate lobbying groups Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks are behind this so-called movement. The former is funded by the mega-wealthy Koch Family, while the latter is chaired by former House Majority Leader, Republican Dick Armey, with a corresponding foundation vice-chaired by Steve Forbes.

The proper term is "astroturfing" and as a valued reader pointed out to me in an email, it's been going on since Nixon ran for President without anyone being called on it.

Now Fox "News" is not only providing complete "coverage" of the events with their commentators in-person, but new wingnut darling Glenn Beck is doing a $300 per plate fundraiser for them. (You know, $300 per "grassroots" activist.) One wonders if there are any government protections for legitimate journalistic enterprises that might be possible to strip away from this obvious advocacy organization.

Because what these events are quickly morphing into are more than just tax protests. They are catch-alls for anyone with a gripe against Obama, who feels marginalized because, uh, their side lost this past Presidential election. The ones who claim he wasn't born in the United States despite Obama's birth certificate. The ones who want to burn college books. The ones who appear unhinged in fear that Obama will somehow take their precious guns away:



The right-wing fearmongering is increasing, and one wonders its ultimate purpose. Is all this agitation for hate actually a recruiting mechanism?

Are we entering a Parallax View-type situation?

Dumb or Scary?

While the Republicans are running their annual Conservative CPAC event this week, there are those admonishing their own party that believe they lost the last two elections due to getting away from their core values, i.e. small government, low taxes (especially, in practice, on the rich) and whatever else reminds them of Ronald Reagan. Pajama Media's Rick Moran ends his piece today:

There must be a reckoning with those who violate the very nature of conservatism by obstinately adhering to exclusionary, anti-intellectual precepts that have thrown classical conservatism over in favor of ranting, ideological tantrums.

He's got that partly right. By embracing Joe the Not-Really-a-Plumber, the intellectually skimpy Sarah Palin and the now proven liar Bobby Jindal, the GOP has embraced the simplistic in a time of complexity. The result is that nobody attends their anti-tax "tea parties" and their supposedly smart lawyers are making fundamental errors in handling Norm Coleman pathetic court bid to steal the Senate election in Minnesota from Al Franken. And the biggest star of their CPAC conference is a 13-year-old:



But it this simplicity of thought, so completely useless in this time of (I would argue) GOP-led economic meltdown, has a brutish side as well. Imagine the outcry were a leftist public official or blogger or cable news personality advocate violence in the face of our new Presidency. But they're doing it right in public.

Joe the Plumber is advocating shooting members of Congress he disagrees with. Sean Hannity is calling for armed revolution on his Website. Fox News is running stories on the coming civil war. John Bolton picks Obama's Chicago for a terrorist attack.

This while white supremacists are plotting the assassination of our new Chief Executive.

I was a child in the 1960's when political assassinations stole a generation -- maybe two -- of progressive leadership from this country. This stuff isn't fantasy or in any way excusable. Remember, the first terrorist attack on U.S. soil wasn't from foreign nationals in 2001, it was from a rightwing anti-government decorated military veteran named Timothy McVeigh six years earlier in 1995.

The Republicans behind all the violent hate talk are, in essence, giving license to every reactionary lunatic out there with a fucked-up power fantasy and a copy of Revelations.

And should anything happen to Obama or his family, they must be held accountable.

And Hell Froze Over

About the off-the-record dinner Obama had on Wednesday night with Conservative columnists:

BAIER: It was at George Will's house, and I saw our friends at "The Politico" called it a dinner and said "The silence of the lamb chops" because no one is talking about it. But what can you say about it?

KRAUTHAMMER: What is interesting is the fact that he would want to do this. And you see that since his election he has kind of reached out to people that may not be ideological allies, to Rick Warren, the pastor who will be at his inaugural, to John McCain, whom he has treated with a lot of dignity and respect, and to a bunch of right wing columnists last night, in part, because I think he is a guy who is intellectually curious and wants to exchange ideas, but also in part he wants to co-opt the vast right wing conspiracy.

And I'm here to tell you that, speaking for myself, he has succeeded. I am brainwashed entirely. I'm in the tank, and I am a believer of hope and change and, above all, audacity.

I'm sorry, but Obama is smarter than we are. If he can get arch-rightwing headcase Charles Krauthammer to say something like this, even if maybe this was in jest?...well, I guess he deserves to be President.

Wreckage

Criminals:

The White House predicted Monday that President Bush would leave a record $482 billion deficit to his successor, a sobering turnabout in the nation’s fiscal condition from 2001, when Mr. Bush took office after three consecutive years of budget surpluses.

The worst may be yet to come. The deficit announced by Jim Nussle, the White House budget director, does not reflect the full cost of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the potential $50 billion cost of another economic stimulus package, or the possibility of steeper losses in tax revenues if individual income or corporate profits decline.

The new deficit numbers also do not account for any drains on the national treasury that might result from further declines in the housing market.

Wow, bad news. But remember Bushie's Law: any damage done by his and Cheney's Administration will turn out to be worse by a factor of 3x. I'll predict we're looking at closer to a one-point-three trillion dollar deficit ($1,300,000,000,000.00) to be discovered within three months following January 20, 2009. And American will have the next installment in paying down the Bush/Cheney debt.

Unless, of course, the designated Republican wins.

What else would not be properly punished? More prosecutable violations:

In her position as White House liaison for the Justice Department, Ms. Goodling was involved in hiring lawyers for both political appointments and nonpolitical career positions. Regardless of the type of position, the report said, Ms. Goodling would run applicants at interviews through the same batch of questions, asking them about their political philosophies, why they wanted to serve President Bush, and who, aside from Mr. Bush, they admired as public servants, the report found. Sometimes, Ms. Goodling would ask: “Why are you a Republican?”

In Ms. Goodling’s notes from the interviews, she would give a shorthand assessment of how well they fared on threshold political issues, as in the notation for one candidate who she wrote was aptly conservative on “god, guns + gays...”

...Such consideration of political views would have been allowed in hiring candidates to political appointments, which make up a tiny part of the Justice Department’s 110,000 employees, but it was clearly banned under both Civil Service law and the Justice Department’s internal policies, the inspector general said.

Like I said, no one will have to know any more about this if this guy gets elected. He's not interested.

Time for a new generation to lead, but is also times like this that the most recidivist element growing malignant all these years with the anger held in abeyance thanks to the exported violence and imported repression, but continued to be fed on smug mass marketed hatred and ignorance by folks like this guy read and undoubtedly listened to and watched.

I predict there will be more of them but the most important thing is to keep ourselves between them and our next President. Because even if there's blood on the hands of the lying purveyors of righteous bile and license, it's no substitute for someone as well-equipped, as poised and focused on solving these problems as any living American could hope to be.

Because this time, if anyone, it's going to take an Obama to clean up after a Bush.