Observing the celebration and commemoration of Ted Kennedy's life and death, one cannot help but notice a sense of unease rising up from the inside. It reminds us of the ways in which his brothers sought to change America and were cut down for it. Today's fiery political climate, far less civil than it was even in the radical Sixties, validates that sense of concern.
Everyone already knows how Phoenix was bristling with firearms at town-hall meetings and anti-Obama rallies. Fewer know about a Baptist "pastor", name of Steven Anderson, who preaches from his Tempe pulpit that our president "ought to be aborted". (Imagine that... A pro-choice Baptist.)
The assassination of John F. Kennedy, followed by the obvious Warren Commission whitewash, left a good and decent America in psychological tatters. As this happened a few years before my time, I had a very big question for my parents about this as soon as it passed through my academic transom.
Why? I kept asking. Why did you let them get away with it? The only way they could answer my question was with one of their own. "What," they asked me, "were we supposed to do?"
And that makes sense. My father was working on a professorial career at the time. My mother was an immigrant-bride from New Zealand. They had two baby girls. They had just lived through the McCarthy era, when the government viewed the most innocent of citizens with considerable suspicion. There was nothing they could do but accept it and move on.
It was a matter of faith, to be sure, for them to have three more children (the last one in 1974) after that. But barely four months after I was born, Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed in Memphis. Two months later Bobby Kennedy was murdered in Los Angeles. I'm sure my folks wondered what kind of world it would be for us kids.
President Obama has received a four-fold increase over past presidents when it comes to death threats. Four=hundred percent. Some of it is fueled by racism; most of it is the result of ceaseless political jingoism from right-wing media. Conservative rage today makes the tenor of the 1960s seem as though it belongs in an elementary schoolyard.
This sudden knotting up of the past and the present makes me wonder about the future in very specific terms. It appears likely that, sooner or later, an attempt will be made on Barack Obama's life. This is the path of the mindless world-view that has been created for this nation's new true minority.
This is not my Dad's America, and I am not my Dad. I don't have a career; I have a job, and no kids to interfere with my decision. More than that, I was brought up with an understanding of American history that he came to know in real time. I asked this question of my father, so it's only fair now to ask it of myself:
If the worst parts of said history recreate themselves today, what am I going to do? Like my father, I can only answer that question with another one, Dear Reader.
What do you think I'm going to do.
pH 8.31.o9
Monday, August 31, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
The Lion Sleeps Tonight
I will introduce myself. I am Teddy Kennedy's brother, and I'm glad to be here tonight. - John F. Kennedy, speaking in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, September 20th, 1962.
Thank you, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, for a job so well done. Rest in peace, and enjoy the rewards of the hereafter.
I imagine it will feel pretty good to play a little football again.
pH 8.26.o9
Thank you, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, for a job so well done. Rest in peace, and enjoy the rewards of the hereafter.
I imagine it will feel pretty good to play a little football again.
pH 8.26.o9
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
...Lest Ye Be Tortured
America's biggest problem - conservatism - persists, now in the form of a fresh CIA torture inquiry, conducted by Attorney General Eric Holder. Republicans are left to decry this as a "no-new-taxes" brand of dishonesty by President Obama, who promised to maintain a forward focus in his administration.
Certainly they are the authorities when it comes to dissembling. This time, their rote cynicism might be accurately placed, as the White House is aware of erosion among far-left leaning constituents (disaffected by the apparent demise of a public option as a key part of health-insurance reform). A Bush-era investigation would be quite the hunk of red meat for them.
As for the question of whether or not the CIA tortured people, well, that much has long since been established. We also know that the highest levels of power signed off on "enhanced interrogation" techniques, which included waterboarding, an act of barbarism for which many Japanese soldiers were hanged after World War II.
(They had done it to American soldiers. It seems the winner makes the rules.)
Prosecution for torturing detainees, who were only captured because our bombs missed them in the first place, seems like a misplaced priority. George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and many other former top officials are guilty of far greater crimes than that - they started an illegal war.
They are unquestionably monsters, personally responsible for more American deaths than were suffered on 9/11, a tally that inches upward to this day. They don't deserve to face Lady Justice.
Make no mistake about it: Those would be easily-obtained convictions. Their own words boldly condemn them. We could arrest them and pack them off to the Hague's damp cellars, we could. Or we could drain their bank accounts to reimburse taxpayers for the hundreds of billions of dollars wasted because of their bloodthirsty folly. We could.
Such a response would signal the rest of the world that America does stand for, and by, the rule of law. It would prove that even our highest positions of power are not insulated from legal consequences, that there are no bubbles of impunity in our politics. It would send the right message. It would...
But I don't want that, because we were suckers for these neo-con thugs, and we have earned the shame of our time. We allowed ourselves to be frightened into giving up precious rights for which others have fought and died over the centuries. The mockery we made of those sacrifices is not something that should be so easily brushed off.
There's something to be said for wearing the scarlet letter. That's not to say, though, that these disgusting domestic despots should be let off the hook. Hell, no. I think they should be tortured, too.
Seriously. It ought not be against the law to do it to someone who says it isn't against the law. There's no need to do this in public, although the interest in doing so would be understandable. It can, and should, be a private experience. Whatever they authorized is good enough for them (I seem to remember something about "organ failure").
That'd be good enough for me. Like they say, a little water never hurt anyone. Bottoms up!
pH 8.25.o9
Certainly they are the authorities when it comes to dissembling. This time, their rote cynicism might be accurately placed, as the White House is aware of erosion among far-left leaning constituents (disaffected by the apparent demise of a public option as a key part of health-insurance reform). A Bush-era investigation would be quite the hunk of red meat for them.
As for the question of whether or not the CIA tortured people, well, that much has long since been established. We also know that the highest levels of power signed off on "enhanced interrogation" techniques, which included waterboarding, an act of barbarism for which many Japanese soldiers were hanged after World War II.
(They had done it to American soldiers. It seems the winner makes the rules.)
Prosecution for torturing detainees, who were only captured because our bombs missed them in the first place, seems like a misplaced priority. George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and many other former top officials are guilty of far greater crimes than that - they started an illegal war.
They are unquestionably monsters, personally responsible for more American deaths than were suffered on 9/11, a tally that inches upward to this day. They don't deserve to face Lady Justice.
Make no mistake about it: Those would be easily-obtained convictions. Their own words boldly condemn them. We could arrest them and pack them off to the Hague's damp cellars, we could. Or we could drain their bank accounts to reimburse taxpayers for the hundreds of billions of dollars wasted because of their bloodthirsty folly. We could.
Such a response would signal the rest of the world that America does stand for, and by, the rule of law. It would prove that even our highest positions of power are not insulated from legal consequences, that there are no bubbles of impunity in our politics. It would send the right message. It would...
But I don't want that, because we were suckers for these neo-con thugs, and we have earned the shame of our time. We allowed ourselves to be frightened into giving up precious rights for which others have fought and died over the centuries. The mockery we made of those sacrifices is not something that should be so easily brushed off.
There's something to be said for wearing the scarlet letter. That's not to say, though, that these disgusting domestic despots should be let off the hook. Hell, no. I think they should be tortured, too.
Seriously. It ought not be against the law to do it to someone who says it isn't against the law. There's no need to do this in public, although the interest in doing so would be understandable. It can, and should, be a private experience. Whatever they authorized is good enough for them (I seem to remember something about "organ failure").
That'd be good enough for me. Like they say, a little water never hurt anyone. Bottoms up!
pH 8.25.o9
Friday, August 21, 2009
Scared to Death
Few things in life are as daunting as a confrontation with a cornered animal. That creature, out of time and room and options, will do anything to save its hide. It will not operate out of intellect or reason, but out of fear and desperation. I'm talking about conservative talk-show hosts.
For the last twenty years, supposed right-wing values have been regurgitated into microphones across the land, with their chief function being full-time demonization of all things liberal. Anyone who soaks in such a foul brew cannot help but absorb the bitter flavors of its content.
After the 2008 election, when all of these clowns were honking about the Fairness Doctrine, I pooh-poohed the notion that such would be reimposed. After all, these fake-media conservatives had thrown everything they had at Barack Obama during the campaign, and he still carried the day with barely a struggle.
After the inauguration, they changed tactics, transforming into a hideous gaggle of cowards. Since then, every single talk-show host has assumed the same fetal stance: They're frightened. Obama's scary. He's dangerous. Rush Limbaugh even claimed that the new president "spooks" him.
It's not as though these human corporations are sincere - oh, please. They aren't really peeing their pants every day for hours on end. But that's exactly what they want their listeners to do. Fear-mongering among conservatives is nothing new; now there are revelations that the color-coded terror alert system was used repeatedly in 2004 to keep John Kerry's poll numbers down as he tried to unseat the worst president we've ever seen.
What they're trying to do - and I'm hardly the first one to say this - is get President Obama killed. That's a touchy subject, sure, but they don't care. To them there really isn't any other solution to this popular and transcendant political figure. They know they can't stop him so they're whipping their base into a mindless froth (which doesn't take much... ask any dead abortion doctor's next of kin).
Look, if Barack Obama really is frightening and dangerous and all of that, then he's a threat to America. That's why you see these freaks at the town hall meetings, hysterically shrieking about wanting "their country" back. That's why Obama is continually compared to Hitler, over and over again, both on and off the airwaves.
Even to the impartial observer, every sentence that emerges from the muck of AM radio constitutes an attempt to subcontract an extemporaneous assassin, and that has to stop. They say the First Amendment protects them in their deadly quest, but that's a pretty thin argument.
If I were a deranged liberal, and felt that my president was in danger, I'd have to consider taking out a Limbaugh or a Hannity or a Savage (or a Beck or a Levin or a Medved). I'm a strong adherent to the Second Amendment. I'm a pretty decent shot, too, having killed and eaten a good many deer in my day.
(Trust me on this; a white-tail deer is a rather miniscule target compared to Rush, whose address can be found on the Palm Beach County Sheriff's website.)
Is there a law against protecting a president from an imminent attack? Might there be a precedent for picking off a clear conservative threat from 300 yards out as it practices its backswing? What do we call that again?
Oh, yeah, now I remember. We call that a "pre-emptive strike". Lawful or not, this sort of thing was thought to be a good idea when Republicans were in power. We called it the Bush Doctrine. And nobody cared.
pH 8.21.o9
For the last twenty years, supposed right-wing values have been regurgitated into microphones across the land, with their chief function being full-time demonization of all things liberal. Anyone who soaks in such a foul brew cannot help but absorb the bitter flavors of its content.
After the 2008 election, when all of these clowns were honking about the Fairness Doctrine, I pooh-poohed the notion that such would be reimposed. After all, these fake-media conservatives had thrown everything they had at Barack Obama during the campaign, and he still carried the day with barely a struggle.
After the inauguration, they changed tactics, transforming into a hideous gaggle of cowards. Since then, every single talk-show host has assumed the same fetal stance: They're frightened. Obama's scary. He's dangerous. Rush Limbaugh even claimed that the new president "spooks" him.
It's not as though these human corporations are sincere - oh, please. They aren't really peeing their pants every day for hours on end. But that's exactly what they want their listeners to do. Fear-mongering among conservatives is nothing new; now there are revelations that the color-coded terror alert system was used repeatedly in 2004 to keep John Kerry's poll numbers down as he tried to unseat the worst president we've ever seen.
What they're trying to do - and I'm hardly the first one to say this - is get President Obama killed. That's a touchy subject, sure, but they don't care. To them there really isn't any other solution to this popular and transcendant political figure. They know they can't stop him so they're whipping their base into a mindless froth (which doesn't take much... ask any dead abortion doctor's next of kin).
Look, if Barack Obama really is frightening and dangerous and all of that, then he's a threat to America. That's why you see these freaks at the town hall meetings, hysterically shrieking about wanting "their country" back. That's why Obama is continually compared to Hitler, over and over again, both on and off the airwaves.
Even to the impartial observer, every sentence that emerges from the muck of AM radio constitutes an attempt to subcontract an extemporaneous assassin, and that has to stop. They say the First Amendment protects them in their deadly quest, but that's a pretty thin argument.
If I were a deranged liberal, and felt that my president was in danger, I'd have to consider taking out a Limbaugh or a Hannity or a Savage (or a Beck or a Levin or a Medved). I'm a strong adherent to the Second Amendment. I'm a pretty decent shot, too, having killed and eaten a good many deer in my day.
(Trust me on this; a white-tail deer is a rather miniscule target compared to Rush, whose address can be found on the Palm Beach County Sheriff's website.)
Is there a law against protecting a president from an imminent attack? Might there be a precedent for picking off a clear conservative threat from 300 yards out as it practices its backswing? What do we call that again?
Oh, yeah, now I remember. We call that a "pre-emptive strike". Lawful or not, this sort of thing was thought to be a good idea when Republicans were in power. We called it the Bush Doctrine. And nobody cared.
pH 8.21.o9
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Senile Implants
It took a while, but finally, a Democrat holding public office came up with a fair and suitable retort to the hordes of wrinkly Republicans on their Town-Hall Freedom Ride to save America from health care reform. Senator Claire McCaskill (who says her teenage sons have prepped her well for these stunts) put the question directly to the mob before her.
She asked all those receiving Medicare to raise their hands, which about half of the audience did, and then she asked how many wanted their Medicare taken away completely. All lowered their liver-spotted claws. The senator did not really need to expound on that. It sent a shawl-tugging chill through the room.
If we are to take Republicans seriously, what she said makes perfect sense. It would be an easy thing for the Congress to simply take them at their word and chop out all entitlements and subsidies. Don't want socialized medicine? Okay...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag6W2YQr63A&feature=related
In that logical sense, the government would also have to consider eliminating Social Security. That's what conservatives want, as they consider our national safety-net to be the bastard child of FDR, an internecine tendril that chokes off our liberty. Therefore, it must be done away with, along with foodstamps and whatever else will reduce wasteful government spending.
Americans could use the tax relief, quite frankly, reaped from ending these liberal social programs. The deficit would practically evaporate along with the aging population, which will allow more reasonable versions of such niceties to perhaps re-emerge in twenty or thirty years.
Of course this would expose a gigantic segment of our population to considerable risk. All those urban legends about the elderly having to eat dog food might well come true. Still, that's why private charitable institutions exist. I, for one, would have no problem dropping off a can of Alpo now and then at the donation center.
(Admittedly, the dry stuff's cheaper and more nutritious, but it's harder on their dentures. In these trying economic times, what we really need is compassion.)
If this seems unsettling, well, that's what happens when you follow bread crumbs through the forest - there's no loaf of bread waiting at the end of the trail. Ginned-up patriotism won't get you anywhere but lost if it's misdirected and professional political operatives are no different than the average telephone scam artist.
They know exactly whom to target for their exploits. It's easy for them to spot the mark. Easier still is getting the Blu-Blockers-and-Bermudas set to do their bidding. It's no more difficult than talking them into a reverse-mortgage.
Sound too good to be true? But wait, there's more. Or less.
pH 8.15.o9
She asked all those receiving Medicare to raise their hands, which about half of the audience did, and then she asked how many wanted their Medicare taken away completely. All lowered their liver-spotted claws. The senator did not really need to expound on that. It sent a shawl-tugging chill through the room.
If we are to take Republicans seriously, what she said makes perfect sense. It would be an easy thing for the Congress to simply take them at their word and chop out all entitlements and subsidies. Don't want socialized medicine? Okay...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag6W2YQr63A&feature=related
In that logical sense, the government would also have to consider eliminating Social Security. That's what conservatives want, as they consider our national safety-net to be the bastard child of FDR, an internecine tendril that chokes off our liberty. Therefore, it must be done away with, along with foodstamps and whatever else will reduce wasteful government spending.
Americans could use the tax relief, quite frankly, reaped from ending these liberal social programs. The deficit would practically evaporate along with the aging population, which will allow more reasonable versions of such niceties to perhaps re-emerge in twenty or thirty years.
Of course this would expose a gigantic segment of our population to considerable risk. All those urban legends about the elderly having to eat dog food might well come true. Still, that's why private charitable institutions exist. I, for one, would have no problem dropping off a can of Alpo now and then at the donation center.
(Admittedly, the dry stuff's cheaper and more nutritious, but it's harder on their dentures. In these trying economic times, what we really need is compassion.)
If this seems unsettling, well, that's what happens when you follow bread crumbs through the forest - there's no loaf of bread waiting at the end of the trail. Ginned-up patriotism won't get you anywhere but lost if it's misdirected and professional political operatives are no different than the average telephone scam artist.
They know exactly whom to target for their exploits. It's easy for them to spot the mark. Easier still is getting the Blu-Blockers-and-Bermudas set to do their bidding. It's no more difficult than talking them into a reverse-mortgage.
Sound too good to be true? But wait, there's more. Or less.
pH 8.15.o9
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Rally 'Round the Family
To paraphrase former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, there are knowns and unknowns (and there are unknown knowns and known unknowns, but for the purposes of clarity let's stop with the knowns and unknowns, lest we become as confused as he). What's known is that Democratic representatives in Congress have never been so eager to get back to work as they are this summer.
The unknowns are less comforting. How much uglier could these conservative invasions of town-hall meetings possibly get? That depends on the conservatives. Already a couple of meetings have ended fitfully due to the presence of firearms among some in the audience. That's a small step beyond the effigies and mock headstones displayed last week.
At first, it was easy to find a suitable axiom for this sort of paid-under-the-table lobbying by the insurance industry. Given the number of Viagra prescriptions doled out these days, one could presume, you are what you eat. Now, though, the debate has progressed into what the Supreme Court has defined as "fighting words".
Put aside, for now, the irony that most of the attention-seekers at these events are obviously in their golden years and are therefore eligible for Medicare (i.e., government health care, which they... oppose). Conservatives have determined that, since their First Amendment rights obviously aren't getting the trick done, they'll fall back on the Second Amendment.
That very sentiment was expressed by a woman in Oregon the other day. It is a tinny reverberation of what has been playing out for years now in the Evangelical set. A good number of Americans are convinced that the End Times are near. They don't want to get Left Behind when the Rapture hits, and like another well-known group of religious zealots, they feel that the best way to get a seat at His Right Hand is to kill the infidels (in Jesus' name, of course).
One of the worst perpetrators of this incivil disobedience has been Erik Prince, the CEO and founder of XE, which is the new name of Blackwater Security. Long known for killing innocent Iraqis in 'roid-rage combat maneuvers, XE is under investigation for all sorts of bad-apple stuff, from gun-running to the killing of potential witnesses. That's why Prince, when you look at him today, has "Prison Bitch" written all over his face.
If conservatives really feel that health care is the rallying cry for an armed revolution, well, that's scary for them. It means that the United States government, sworn to uphold and defend this nation against all enemies foreign and domestic, will have to show them what all those defense dollars were about.
With all due respect (Read: not much) to the folks at XE/Blackwater, I'd be willing to put my money on our troops over these neo-con paramilitary crusaders any day. I'm pretty sure Vegas would agree. The big wagers would involve how many hours - or minutes - it would take to put down a modern-day Whisky Rebellion.
If it's worth anything, there would also be a good number of Americans appalled enough by their actions to take up arms themselves, as well they should. If that's where this is headed, then you can count on about three-fourths of the people willing to be your hackle-bearer.
pH 8.12.o9
The unknowns are less comforting. How much uglier could these conservative invasions of town-hall meetings possibly get? That depends on the conservatives. Already a couple of meetings have ended fitfully due to the presence of firearms among some in the audience. That's a small step beyond the effigies and mock headstones displayed last week.
At first, it was easy to find a suitable axiom for this sort of paid-under-the-table lobbying by the insurance industry. Given the number of Viagra prescriptions doled out these days, one could presume, you are what you eat. Now, though, the debate has progressed into what the Supreme Court has defined as "fighting words".
Put aside, for now, the irony that most of the attention-seekers at these events are obviously in their golden years and are therefore eligible for Medicare (i.e., government health care, which they... oppose). Conservatives have determined that, since their First Amendment rights obviously aren't getting the trick done, they'll fall back on the Second Amendment.
That very sentiment was expressed by a woman in Oregon the other day. It is a tinny reverberation of what has been playing out for years now in the Evangelical set. A good number of Americans are convinced that the End Times are near. They don't want to get Left Behind when the Rapture hits, and like another well-known group of religious zealots, they feel that the best way to get a seat at His Right Hand is to kill the infidels (in Jesus' name, of course).
One of the worst perpetrators of this incivil disobedience has been Erik Prince, the CEO and founder of XE, which is the new name of Blackwater Security. Long known for killing innocent Iraqis in 'roid-rage combat maneuvers, XE is under investigation for all sorts of bad-apple stuff, from gun-running to the killing of potential witnesses. That's why Prince, when you look at him today, has "Prison Bitch" written all over his face.
If conservatives really feel that health care is the rallying cry for an armed revolution, well, that's scary for them. It means that the United States government, sworn to uphold and defend this nation against all enemies foreign and domestic, will have to show them what all those defense dollars were about.
With all due respect (Read: not much) to the folks at XE/Blackwater, I'd be willing to put my money on our troops over these neo-con paramilitary crusaders any day. I'm pretty sure Vegas would agree. The big wagers would involve how many hours - or minutes - it would take to put down a modern-day Whisky Rebellion.
If it's worth anything, there would also be a good number of Americans appalled enough by their actions to take up arms themselves, as well they should. If that's where this is headed, then you can count on about three-fourths of the people willing to be your hackle-bearer.
pH 8.12.o9
Monday, August 10, 2009
Odds Against All
With conservatives buzzing around the nation like angry bees, it shouldn't be too hard to figure out what they stand for. If anybody could get them to shut up for a second, that question might be put to them, but no.
Those in the spotlight (well, with the microphone) will tell you that their principles are founded in "Reagan conservatism". However, those ideas have had their day, and the result was an America that is divided and deep in debt. Voters, the last time anyone noticed, had rejected GOP policies wholesale.
That means nothing to the human bullhorns who have made themselves so noteworthy in the health-care debate. They have latched onto a certain set of false beliefs (foisted upon them by an army of misinformants), ranging from state-provided abortions to "Obama death panels", the latter irresponsibly uttered by renowned quitter Sarah Palin.
Perhaps, then, it isn't so easy to discern what the unbalanced few stand for, since they seem unable to articulate much beyond a level that only veteran kennel-keepers can decipher. Much clearer is the panoramic picture of what they are against:
Everything. Everything that the new president has proposed. Everything that the Democrats support. Everything that America has said it wants. Anything that doesn't line up with the neolithic, flagellant thought processes afflicting the roughly 23 percent of America that still identifies with conservatism.
The best example of the Ridiculous Right's pathological foot-dragging can be found in the "Cash for Clunkers" program. This gem of an idea, the subsidization of automobile trade-in values aimed at recycling older (and less fuel-efficient) cars, has created positive ripple-effects through the economy, touching everything from dealerships to steel mills to newspaper advertising desks. They're against it.
That's hardly the only place one finds this mindless opposition. Winding down the Iraq war and ramping up the one in Afghanistan in order to win it - opposed. Health care for all Americans - no way. Energy independence through renewables - impossible. Tax laws being enforced where corporations are concerned - preposterous.
They're against stimulating the economy. They're against bailouts (if that's what you want to call bankruptcy) for U.S. automakers. They're against a more well-rounded representation of the public on the Supreme Court. They couldn't even force themselves to be happy when Bill Clinton brought those two journalists home from North Korea.
This says nothing good about Republicans. Never before has our nation been disgraced by such a bitter and joyless pursuit of power. The object of a minority party in our government should be to help craft the laws with a modicum of input, not to thwart the duly elected majority's every move.
What they're doing (and many of them would proudly agree) is secession. Not a geographical secession, which was tried in the past, but an ideological one. The initial response is to say, fine, let them go; they're not exactly the life of the party anyway... But go where?
How terrible it must be for conservatives, to be trapped within the confines of this Hell-hole, these United States of America. If they just can't stand it, well, nobody's stopping them from leaving.
pH 8.1o.o9
Those in the spotlight (well, with the microphone) will tell you that their principles are founded in "Reagan conservatism". However, those ideas have had their day, and the result was an America that is divided and deep in debt. Voters, the last time anyone noticed, had rejected GOP policies wholesale.
That means nothing to the human bullhorns who have made themselves so noteworthy in the health-care debate. They have latched onto a certain set of false beliefs (foisted upon them by an army of misinformants), ranging from state-provided abortions to "Obama death panels", the latter irresponsibly uttered by renowned quitter Sarah Palin.
Perhaps, then, it isn't so easy to discern what the unbalanced few stand for, since they seem unable to articulate much beyond a level that only veteran kennel-keepers can decipher. Much clearer is the panoramic picture of what they are against:
Everything. Everything that the new president has proposed. Everything that the Democrats support. Everything that America has said it wants. Anything that doesn't line up with the neolithic, flagellant thought processes afflicting the roughly 23 percent of America that still identifies with conservatism.
The best example of the Ridiculous Right's pathological foot-dragging can be found in the "Cash for Clunkers" program. This gem of an idea, the subsidization of automobile trade-in values aimed at recycling older (and less fuel-efficient) cars, has created positive ripple-effects through the economy, touching everything from dealerships to steel mills to newspaper advertising desks. They're against it.
That's hardly the only place one finds this mindless opposition. Winding down the Iraq war and ramping up the one in Afghanistan in order to win it - opposed. Health care for all Americans - no way. Energy independence through renewables - impossible. Tax laws being enforced where corporations are concerned - preposterous.
They're against stimulating the economy. They're against bailouts (if that's what you want to call bankruptcy) for U.S. automakers. They're against a more well-rounded representation of the public on the Supreme Court. They couldn't even force themselves to be happy when Bill Clinton brought those two journalists home from North Korea.
This says nothing good about Republicans. Never before has our nation been disgraced by such a bitter and joyless pursuit of power. The object of a minority party in our government should be to help craft the laws with a modicum of input, not to thwart the duly elected majority's every move.
What they're doing (and many of them would proudly agree) is secession. Not a geographical secession, which was tried in the past, but an ideological one. The initial response is to say, fine, let them go; they're not exactly the life of the party anyway... But go where?
How terrible it must be for conservatives, to be trapped within the confines of this Hell-hole, these United States of America. If they just can't stand it, well, nobody's stopping them from leaving.
pH 8.1o.o9
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Urban Legend No. 57348: Conscience of a Conservative
The conservative traveling town-hall carnival has come to my neck of the woods. Not since the construction of Roosevelt Dam have so many jackasses been herded so closely together in such an organized manner.
Today there will be two gatherings. At nine o'clock in the morning, professional protestors will descend upon the office of Democrat Harry Mitchell. It was tempting, the idea of experiencing political thuggery at its ugliest, but my principles are keeping me away.
My views wouldn't matter to Harry because he isn't my Congressman. Republican John Shadegg is. His town-hall meeting is to be held at 11:30 a.m. just a few miles from the spot where Harry will be harrassed. Both will be graced by the presence of an insurance-industry-backed lobbying group called "Americans for Prosperity".
These are the people who have told their rent-a-mouths to "put the fear of God" into Democratic representatives, even if it means riding the bus from state to state, the outfit that compares the Obama health care plan - whatever that might be, since Congress hasn't produced it yet - to the Holocaust. Yup. The Holocaust.
(My brother married a nice German gal; I should ask her if that's the way it was presented to her in school, that the Third Reich was trying to provide health care to six million Jews. Maybe.)
In other words, these are not rational people, not far in spirit from that twisted religious cult from Kansas that went around protesting the funerals of soldiers because God killed them on account of He hates gays. Makes sense to some. I would sooner attend a Klan rally than be in the presence of such truly vile people.
It might be a different story if they had a point, but they don't. Between seniors on Medicare (39.5 million Americans), civilian federal employees (1.8 million), our fine military personnel (2.66 million strong), kids on SCHIP (about 7.5 million) and federal prisoners (all 206,576 of them), we already have as many folks receiving government health care in this country as we have without any health insurance at all...
Which means that we're already halfway through the Holocaust! Why, it's been taking place forever now, including the 12 consecutive years that the U.S. House of Representatives was controlled by the GOP. Heck, the most conservative president we've ever had in the White House watched it happen right under his powdery nose. And what did they say then?
So, when you see the footage of these right-wing lunatics disrupting the machinations of democracy, you understand that they're not doing it out of concern. They're doing it out of hatred for Barack Obama and nothing else. Why else compare him to the most extreme embodiment of evil in our time, Adolph Hitler?
In doing so - especially here - they have relegated the works and ideals of a great Arizonan, Barry Goldwater, to the children's fiction shelf in our national library. The conscience of today's conservative is but a fairy tale without a moral.
pH 8.o8.o9
Today there will be two gatherings. At nine o'clock in the morning, professional protestors will descend upon the office of Democrat Harry Mitchell. It was tempting, the idea of experiencing political thuggery at its ugliest, but my principles are keeping me away.
My views wouldn't matter to Harry because he isn't my Congressman. Republican John Shadegg is. His town-hall meeting is to be held at 11:30 a.m. just a few miles from the spot where Harry will be harrassed. Both will be graced by the presence of an insurance-industry-backed lobbying group called "Americans for Prosperity".
These are the people who have told their rent-a-mouths to "put the fear of God" into Democratic representatives, even if it means riding the bus from state to state, the outfit that compares the Obama health care plan - whatever that might be, since Congress hasn't produced it yet - to the Holocaust. Yup. The Holocaust.
(My brother married a nice German gal; I should ask her if that's the way it was presented to her in school, that the Third Reich was trying to provide health care to six million Jews. Maybe.)
In other words, these are not rational people, not far in spirit from that twisted religious cult from Kansas that went around protesting the funerals of soldiers because God killed them on account of He hates gays. Makes sense to some. I would sooner attend a Klan rally than be in the presence of such truly vile people.
It might be a different story if they had a point, but they don't. Between seniors on Medicare (39.5 million Americans), civilian federal employees (1.8 million), our fine military personnel (2.66 million strong), kids on SCHIP (about 7.5 million) and federal prisoners (all 206,576 of them), we already have as many folks receiving government health care in this country as we have without any health insurance at all...
Which means that we're already halfway through the Holocaust! Why, it's been taking place forever now, including the 12 consecutive years that the U.S. House of Representatives was controlled by the GOP. Heck, the most conservative president we've ever had in the White House watched it happen right under his powdery nose. And what did they say then?
So, when you see the footage of these right-wing lunatics disrupting the machinations of democracy, you understand that they're not doing it out of concern. They're doing it out of hatred for Barack Obama and nothing else. Why else compare him to the most extreme embodiment of evil in our time, Adolph Hitler?
In doing so - especially here - they have relegated the works and ideals of a great Arizonan, Barry Goldwater, to the children's fiction shelf in our national library. The conscience of today's conservative is but a fairy tale without a moral.
pH 8.o8.o9
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Doctor, Doctor (Give Me The News)
Health care in the United States, as debates go, is raging ahead full throttle. Health care in the United States, in practice, has been in a slow state of decline and decay and is just about at the point of unworkability today.
The numbers tell the story. One out of every six dollars spent by Americans goes to the health care industry, even with over 50 million uninsured among us. The cost of premiums has quadrupled in the last ten years. 80 percent of those polled want serious reforms, with nearly three-fourths favoring a "public option" to compete with Big Doc.
Of the two major political parties, only one has shown any willingness to take action with this runaway ambulance headed our way. Harry S Truman introduced the idea in 1945. Bill Clinton, God love him, gave it a whirl in the early '90s but was rebuffed by conservatives who were somehow scared witless by the likes of "Harry and Louise". (Liberals were more preoccupied with Thelma and Louise.)
Now Barack Obama is following through with his promise of reform, including a public option, whether the Republicans want to play ball or not. His plan will cost a trillion dollars over ten years - by most informed estimates - and has something in it to offend everyone. Even those who choose not to have health care may have to pay into the system to compensate everyone else picking up their slack.
It has become apparent that the GOP is at the beck and call of anyone making money off the illnesses of others: For-profit hospitals, HMOs, Big Pharma, they can all be found squirming around in the pockets of those who most vocally oppose the president's plan.
The health care industry can't reduce your costs and premiums, but it can spend millions of dollars on lobbying firms, which recruit the most willful of idiots to disrupt town-hall meetings in the most obnoxious of fashions. It's nothing new. One of those lobbying firms, Freedom Works, is headed by the appropriately-named Dick Armey (former Republican Speaker of the House).
This is the same circus-tent crowd that dug in their heels and pinned back their ears when Obama rolled out his recent economic stimulus plan. I guess they just wanted to see their mission (destroying the American economy through corporate deregulation) come to its inevitable conclusion; fortunately, cooler heads prevailed at the ballot box.
The Party of No hides behind an anti-spending argument that runs 180 degrees contrary to their behavior when Republicans held Congress. That's why only a paranoid minority believes or supports them. Spending is a serious enough issue, and that discussion should be left to serious enough people.
Let's look at it, though, since that's their stated scrimshaw of a position. One trillion dollars for health care, that's a lot of cabbage, all right. It's about as much money as we've spent fighting a fraudulently-conceived war in Iraq. A trillion and a half for the stimulus, why, that's just about the amount of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans (less interest).
Really, if deficit spending needs to be explained, that's so easy that even right-wingers ought to be able to understand. We're putting all of this on the national credit card because it needs to be done. The public elected a president and a Party that expressed interest in doing just that. Who said that line about "will o' the people"?
The sad fact is that all of this stuff - the bailouts, the stimulus, health care - could have been paid for in cash had George W. Bush and the Republican Party not already pissed all of our money away. So it does not seem unreasonable to take that money back and put it where it belongs.
For our national malady, that would seem to be just what the doctor ordered. If conservatives want to refuse treatment, well, that's why modern medicine invented the feeding tube.
pH 8.o6.o9
The numbers tell the story. One out of every six dollars spent by Americans goes to the health care industry, even with over 50 million uninsured among us. The cost of premiums has quadrupled in the last ten years. 80 percent of those polled want serious reforms, with nearly three-fourths favoring a "public option" to compete with Big Doc.
Of the two major political parties, only one has shown any willingness to take action with this runaway ambulance headed our way. Harry S Truman introduced the idea in 1945. Bill Clinton, God love him, gave it a whirl in the early '90s but was rebuffed by conservatives who were somehow scared witless by the likes of "Harry and Louise". (Liberals were more preoccupied with Thelma and Louise.)
Now Barack Obama is following through with his promise of reform, including a public option, whether the Republicans want to play ball or not. His plan will cost a trillion dollars over ten years - by most informed estimates - and has something in it to offend everyone. Even those who choose not to have health care may have to pay into the system to compensate everyone else picking up their slack.
It has become apparent that the GOP is at the beck and call of anyone making money off the illnesses of others: For-profit hospitals, HMOs, Big Pharma, they can all be found squirming around in the pockets of those who most vocally oppose the president's plan.
The health care industry can't reduce your costs and premiums, but it can spend millions of dollars on lobbying firms, which recruit the most willful of idiots to disrupt town-hall meetings in the most obnoxious of fashions. It's nothing new. One of those lobbying firms, Freedom Works, is headed by the appropriately-named Dick Armey (former Republican Speaker of the House).
This is the same circus-tent crowd that dug in their heels and pinned back their ears when Obama rolled out his recent economic stimulus plan. I guess they just wanted to see their mission (destroying the American economy through corporate deregulation) come to its inevitable conclusion; fortunately, cooler heads prevailed at the ballot box.
The Party of No hides behind an anti-spending argument that runs 180 degrees contrary to their behavior when Republicans held Congress. That's why only a paranoid minority believes or supports them. Spending is a serious enough issue, and that discussion should be left to serious enough people.
Let's look at it, though, since that's their stated scrimshaw of a position. One trillion dollars for health care, that's a lot of cabbage, all right. It's about as much money as we've spent fighting a fraudulently-conceived war in Iraq. A trillion and a half for the stimulus, why, that's just about the amount of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans (less interest).
Really, if deficit spending needs to be explained, that's so easy that even right-wingers ought to be able to understand. We're putting all of this on the national credit card because it needs to be done. The public elected a president and a Party that expressed interest in doing just that. Who said that line about "will o' the people"?
The sad fact is that all of this stuff - the bailouts, the stimulus, health care - could have been paid for in cash had George W. Bush and the Republican Party not already pissed all of our money away. So it does not seem unreasonable to take that money back and put it where it belongs.
For our national malady, that would seem to be just what the doctor ordered. If conservatives want to refuse treatment, well, that's why modern medicine invented the feeding tube.
pH 8.o6.o9
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