Elena Kagan has been launched with a TV ad and Obama's video e-mail to Organizing for America members. I would loved to be introduced the way she was by the President. Although do we really need to have each nominee have a story? The bottom-line like Sotomayor, she's a moderate liberal. Now we're being told she's a blank slate and a risky pick because all we have to go on is her writing, his professional experience and her teaching career. And she was even paid $10,000 as a consultant to Goldman Sachs, owners of America.
To alienate the Left, it's been reported that Elena Kagan said there is no federal constitutional right for same sex marriage, although that's not how Ted Olson will be argue it before the Supreme Court. All marriage laws are local. And she reportedly advised Bill Clinton to ban late-term abortions. To the right, she's a closeted lesbian--I guess that's the new term for professional woman--and an activist judge who will "subvert the Court's pro-business tilt." Little Billy Kristol today retrenched, saying she would have to apologize for her stance on military recruitment on campuses. College dropout Rush Limbaugh said " she's elitist." While I went to the University of Chicago and Harvard for my graduate work, I do distrust people who went to Princeton for their undergraduate--even Sonya Sotomayor. And, horrors of horrors, she's another woman from New York City.
Jim Inhofe from the state of Oklahoma has already stated he will oppose because she puts political correctness above our national security--in regard to the DADT policies. Jeffrey Beauregard Sessions claims she's an activist, who will not follow the original intent of the Constitution like, for instance,the Supreme Court's decision on Citizens United, which ignored the Founding Father's anti-corporate animus and expanded the notion of legal person to let foreign and domestic companies give unlimited funds to political campaigns. I'm being snarky. The GOP will definitely try to get her on the record in terms of the constitutionality of the health care bill.
While Michael Steele today embraced slavery by slamming her support of Thursgood Marshall's statement that the Constitution was flawed, some blogger happened to discover George Washington's letter to his nephew where Washington reflected that the Constitution was "not free from imperfections." Of course, the natural answer is that it had to be imperfect otherwise why would it need amendments. And, let's not forget, after slaves were freed, there was quite a wait to give women their rights.
Patrick Leahy got the gist right,"The President could have nominated Moses and the Republicans would have objected and asked him for his birth certificate."
The strategy of the GOP is to fling paper in the air and make accusations after accusations until something sticks. Their ultimate goal is to delay any other agenda items of the President and to push this past the August recess because "that forces the red and purple state Democrats to have to go home and face their constituents." It's simply another form of obstructionism.
In the last few days there has been a rash of other states who want to emulate the Arizona immigration law. However, immigration reform has gotten a boost from the evangelical community. It's not because they repented or re-read the New Testament. It's they did the math. Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Convention's public policy wing, Matthew Staver, dean of Liberty University School of Law, Rev. Samuel Rodriquez, an Hispanic evangelist, and Rick Tyler of Newt Gingrich's group announced they would lobby Congress for quick passage of immigration reform.
In their statement, they said,"We must allow the millions of undocumented and otherwise law-abiding persons living in our midst to come out of the shadows".
Richard Land, speaking about Hispanics voting Democratic, stated the objective bluntly," Hispanics are hard-wired to be like us (Southerners) on the sanctity of life, marriage and issues of faith. I'm concerned about being perceived as being unwelcoming to them." You Betcha.
This will be fascinating to watch as it plays out, especially in the list of states in the South, which I wrote about yesterday.
But here in the original capital of the Confederacy, Bob "Jobs" McDonnell has appointed Fred Malek, Sarah Palin's adviser to chair the state commission to restructure government. Fred is best known as the man Nixon appointed to develop lists of all the Jews in the Nixon White House. So I guess his new job is to follow the Governor's passion and find out how many gays work for the Virginia government.
And finally the BIG FLOP. Billionairess Meg Whitman once had a 50-point lead against teabagger Steve Poizner, then two weeks ago it dropped to a 22 -point lead. Yesterday after ads linked her to Goldman Sachs, she only leads by 2 points. I'm having a tough time wrapping my mind around the victory of Governor Moonbeam, Jerry Brown.
One hopeful note--One third of all birthers approve of Obama's handling of the Presidency. My response to a conservative e-mailer today was that even they know the white boys screwed up so now we have to get foreigners to clean up the mess.
Remember: "Every day in the United States of America is secular."
Showing posts with label the Birthers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the Birthers. Show all posts
Monday, May 10, 2010
Friday, September 4, 2009
Gonzo America--The Crazy, the Demented and the True
It's been a busy week as the incoming has been hot and heavy. The birthers or Orly Taitz or Oilie Taint acting as attorney had their case thrown out by a District Court because Orly never signed the papers. A woman medic in this brief likened President Obama to Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and Francois Duvalier and was seeking to apply for conscientious objection because Obama has not shown his birth certificate.
The Tenthers-- the new Tenth Amendment movement--is trying to change the Georgia state constitution to prevent health care reform. Tenthers claim that Medicare and Social Security are unconstitutional--something real constitution scholars deny. I would like them to succeed in their effort so when healthcare reform passes, they'll find their effort will have literally no effect--nada, zippo, the big goose egg.
Gover Rick Parry of the Republic of Texas resents President Obama planning to address the nation's school children on the first day of school. He insists that Obama should have talked to school principals about what he's going to say. The problem,Gov. Rick, is that President Obama points in the speech are already on the Department of Education website and a letter already went out to all schools. Stay informed! Stay Classy! The Florida Republican Party has denounced the speech as Obama's effort to indoctrinate children with socialism. South Carolina and Georgia are making it optional for students to attend school because of parental protests. Even here in Virginia, Loudon County with the wealthiest of Republicans will forgo the President's speech. Christians have petitioned some counties in California and in Colorado to prohibit the broadcast of the President speech.
So let's get this straight. The President, who has been a constitutional law professor and graduated law school magna cum laude, would be a bad role model for children. Having heard him on education before, he comes off like a nerdy guy emphasizing all the usual bromides of attend school, study hard, do your homework and eat healthy foods and get your sleep. The very stuff of socialist utopias. All the criticism and censorship of the speech will only make it more attractive for kids. Somehow all the protesters forget the speech will be on C-Span, WhiteHouse. gov and Youtube in case the children want to disobey their parents.
The question really is why the media actually give these morons any publicity. If anything, most of these characters protesting the President of the United States talking to the nation's students should be declared unfit parents. The head of the Florida Republican Party in his television appearances implies that he prohibits his children from ever watching the President. In my ancient youth, all parents encouraged children to listen to the President, whether they voted for him or not, because it was all a part of civics.
Levi Johnston, the once future son-in-law of Sarah Palin, has brought high entertainment back to politics this past week. Levi claims that Sarah was not the best homemaker, didn't know how to shoot a gun even though she kept one under the bed, tired of the Government's job because it was "too hard" and just wanted to make money. Levi hopes to be a male model and pose for all the gays reading Playgirl. Meanwhile, Sarah is in an undisclosed location, occasionally phoning into her family. She is"writing her memoir" and has been asking her dad about how many points she scored in basketball,when they went to the Boston Marathon and other exciting sports-related questions.
Republicans are scouting around for future Presidential candidates. Among them are General Petraeus, whom no one will remember, especially after we leave Iraq in ruins. Another is Joe Scarborough of Morning Joe fame. And another still--a favorite of the base and gays is Rick Santorum. As we all remember, Dan Savage of America's greatest sex advice column "Savage Love" had a contest about what sexual reference should be "Santorum". The winner was the bodily fluids excreted after Anal Sex. This has immortalized Rick Santorum to millions of Americans.
The Left is going bonkers over every statement or cryptic reference coming from the White House and Democratic leaders concerning whether the 'public option" is in or out of the healthcare proposals. As of this Friday before Labor Day, it's still in, although people are afraid that President Obama is negotiating a "trigger" option with Senator Olympia Snowe.
During the past week, our ace media have missed several pro-health reform rallies where thousands have gathered in support of the President's plan. Instead, the big story was a healthcare opponent having his finger beaten off by a pro-healthcare supporter. We were even treated to the drops of blood on the sidewalk.
The press continued their superb coverage by criticising the President for going on a second vacation to Camp David. OK, now President Bush spent a total of 3 full years at his ranch without a great deal of criticism. President Obama's vacation on Martha's Vineyard was something less than relaxing. He re-annouced the appointment of Ben Bernacke to the Fed, wrote and gave a statement on Senator Kennedy's death, flew to see the Kennedy family and gave a eulogy. The networks even got around to criticising him for not sticking around for the family-only funeral.
The radical Right Christian communities have topped themselves by coming out against healthcare reform. I understand one could have criticisms but a church coming out against the whole thing. Amazing. The Archdiocese of St Louis gave the reactionary Catholic voice by saying the Church does not endorse socialized medicine. One really has to get in the weeds to find anything remotely socialist in anything being proposed. It is incredibly disconcerting for religious organizations to come out against health coverage for the poor and uninsured. To put it mildly, it's theologically disturbing. A great Pastor in Tempe, Arizona, which must breed more nuts per acres than anywhere in the U.S., called for Obama to die and go to Hell. Not for anything he did, mind you; it's because the Pastor admits he hates him--something that strikes me as anti-Christian.
The great lover and fundamentalist Governor of South Carolina Sanford is being pressed to resign by the state's GOP. The Lt.Governor Andre Bauer has offered to sit for the remaining term and promised not to run for election. It appears that some of the Governor evangelical friends soon circulated rumors that the gay community has confirmed that Mr. Bauer has had gay affairs. Local evangelicals, who support his very heavy family values approach and his leadership in getting a variety of Christian slogans on license plates, had an amazing response. "Just because he had sex with men doesn't mean he's gay." "It was probably some sort of mistake." Wow!
The Head of the Board of Education selected by loverboy Sanford has been upholding family values. She home-schools her children and has introduced a consevative curriculum in the school system. At night she likes to play on line suggesting she would really like to be in a threesome and looks forward to some girl-girl action. She even dabbles in writing erotica and likes to show up at political functions and show off her sheer underwear. That might make the South rise again.
Lawrence O'Donnell, who has been ably defending Democratic views on MSNBC, appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show and claimed that President Obama was desparate on the health care issue and was pessimistic about it passing. It was an unusual statement in a week of unusual events. Strip away all the noise and polling on healthcare reform remains fairly consistent when people are asked about the particulars of the plan. My gut tells me something substantial will be passed.
Margaret and Helen, America's oldest bloggers, have been unkind on the subject of Republican criticisms of the health care reform. In their eighties, they promise everyone they'll live as long as they want and will spend the grandchildren's inheritance doing so. The ladies warn Americans about congress types who claim God speaks to them. They particularly aim their arrows at Michelle Bachman of Minnesota, who loves to boast she is the most hated Republican woman in America--after Sarah Palin. Michelle Bachman urged her supporters to slit their wrists this week and create a blood bond to prevent healthcare reform from passing. She also promised that even though Democrats want to elect the first woman President, God will decide on a Republican. Pretty strong stuff. Margaret and Helen dished about the lack of education of some of the Republican luminaries such as Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, both of whom dropped out of college. They did say at least Palin got her degree after six years and five colleges later.
And speaking of Glenn Beck--he continues to infuriate me because of his colossal ignorance. The other night he decided to "decode the architecture of Rockefeller Center" as an allegory of progressive-fascist-communist conspiracies somehow linked to the Rockefeller Family and --ergo--Obama (?) The history of art in Rockefeller Center is well-documented with such pyrotechnics as Diego Rivera creating a fresco with Lenin and a lampoon of Rockefeller as part of a pay dispute. This is so well-known you have to be truly ignorant to make up your own history without any reference to it.
Advertisers continue to flee Glenn Beck, which only fuels his self-aggrandizement as the sole purveyor of truth. In Washington, we look forward to the grand finale of his 9-12 project, which somehow believes the United States was created during the Revolution and then time-travelled to 9-11, which in Beck's perverse world we became as One--sort of like a post-modern Woodstock built on tragedy. And the fine country that existed then is being taken away from us by the fiendish black man Barack Obama. The 9-12 project is to conclude with the gathering of the tea-baggers, who I guess will wait the Rapture. On the 13th then, we are to see the March on Washington of all those for healthcare reform.
This non-stop insanity since September shows no let-up. Birthers, Deathers, Tenthers, Gun nuts and the Ayran Christs make a very dangerous brew. Dan Savage was quite correct that these people want the President dead--no iffs, no ands or buts. You would have to go back to the tail-end of the Eisenhower era, when the extreme right emerged to accuse Ike and his cabinet, which included General Marshall, of being fellow travellers and Comsymps. When JFK was elected, this underbelly of our society put the train in motion that fueled the assasinations of JFK, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, even though the assassins themselves had a variety of politics. They legitimized violence as a way to settle disputes in our democracy. The same is going on today. What is striking is that there are no mature adults emerging on the Right to neutralize this. Instead we have Senator Jim Inhofe claiming "all our institutions are under attack today. And the President is thinking about letting terrorists free in our country" And you can make your own list of elected officials that re-iterate this nonsense ad nauseum.
I'm tempted to give it rest myself. These people are so certifiable, it is anxiety provoking just to follow their rantings. In the next posts, I'll talk about some good books that have been printed--some even by socialists.
The Tenthers-- the new Tenth Amendment movement--is trying to change the Georgia state constitution to prevent health care reform. Tenthers claim that Medicare and Social Security are unconstitutional--something real constitution scholars deny. I would like them to succeed in their effort so when healthcare reform passes, they'll find their effort will have literally no effect--nada, zippo, the big goose egg.
Gover Rick Parry of the Republic of Texas resents President Obama planning to address the nation's school children on the first day of school. He insists that Obama should have talked to school principals about what he's going to say. The problem,Gov. Rick, is that President Obama points in the speech are already on the Department of Education website and a letter already went out to all schools. Stay informed! Stay Classy! The Florida Republican Party has denounced the speech as Obama's effort to indoctrinate children with socialism. South Carolina and Georgia are making it optional for students to attend school because of parental protests. Even here in Virginia, Loudon County with the wealthiest of Republicans will forgo the President's speech. Christians have petitioned some counties in California and in Colorado to prohibit the broadcast of the President speech.
So let's get this straight. The President, who has been a constitutional law professor and graduated law school magna cum laude, would be a bad role model for children. Having heard him on education before, he comes off like a nerdy guy emphasizing all the usual bromides of attend school, study hard, do your homework and eat healthy foods and get your sleep. The very stuff of socialist utopias. All the criticism and censorship of the speech will only make it more attractive for kids. Somehow all the protesters forget the speech will be on C-Span, WhiteHouse. gov and Youtube in case the children want to disobey their parents.
The question really is why the media actually give these morons any publicity. If anything, most of these characters protesting the President of the United States talking to the nation's students should be declared unfit parents. The head of the Florida Republican Party in his television appearances implies that he prohibits his children from ever watching the President. In my ancient youth, all parents encouraged children to listen to the President, whether they voted for him or not, because it was all a part of civics.
Levi Johnston, the once future son-in-law of Sarah Palin, has brought high entertainment back to politics this past week. Levi claims that Sarah was not the best homemaker, didn't know how to shoot a gun even though she kept one under the bed, tired of the Government's job because it was "too hard" and just wanted to make money. Levi hopes to be a male model and pose for all the gays reading Playgirl. Meanwhile, Sarah is in an undisclosed location, occasionally phoning into her family. She is"writing her memoir" and has been asking her dad about how many points she scored in basketball,when they went to the Boston Marathon and other exciting sports-related questions.
Republicans are scouting around for future Presidential candidates. Among them are General Petraeus, whom no one will remember, especially after we leave Iraq in ruins. Another is Joe Scarborough of Morning Joe fame. And another still--a favorite of the base and gays is Rick Santorum. As we all remember, Dan Savage of America's greatest sex advice column "Savage Love" had a contest about what sexual reference should be "Santorum". The winner was the bodily fluids excreted after Anal Sex. This has immortalized Rick Santorum to millions of Americans.
The Left is going bonkers over every statement or cryptic reference coming from the White House and Democratic leaders concerning whether the 'public option" is in or out of the healthcare proposals. As of this Friday before Labor Day, it's still in, although people are afraid that President Obama is negotiating a "trigger" option with Senator Olympia Snowe.
During the past week, our ace media have missed several pro-health reform rallies where thousands have gathered in support of the President's plan. Instead, the big story was a healthcare opponent having his finger beaten off by a pro-healthcare supporter. We were even treated to the drops of blood on the sidewalk.
The press continued their superb coverage by criticising the President for going on a second vacation to Camp David. OK, now President Bush spent a total of 3 full years at his ranch without a great deal of criticism. President Obama's vacation on Martha's Vineyard was something less than relaxing. He re-annouced the appointment of Ben Bernacke to the Fed, wrote and gave a statement on Senator Kennedy's death, flew to see the Kennedy family and gave a eulogy. The networks even got around to criticising him for not sticking around for the family-only funeral.
The radical Right Christian communities have topped themselves by coming out against healthcare reform. I understand one could have criticisms but a church coming out against the whole thing. Amazing. The Archdiocese of St Louis gave the reactionary Catholic voice by saying the Church does not endorse socialized medicine. One really has to get in the weeds to find anything remotely socialist in anything being proposed. It is incredibly disconcerting for religious organizations to come out against health coverage for the poor and uninsured. To put it mildly, it's theologically disturbing. A great Pastor in Tempe, Arizona, which must breed more nuts per acres than anywhere in the U.S., called for Obama to die and go to Hell. Not for anything he did, mind you; it's because the Pastor admits he hates him--something that strikes me as anti-Christian.
The great lover and fundamentalist Governor of South Carolina Sanford is being pressed to resign by the state's GOP. The Lt.Governor Andre Bauer has offered to sit for the remaining term and promised not to run for election. It appears that some of the Governor evangelical friends soon circulated rumors that the gay community has confirmed that Mr. Bauer has had gay affairs. Local evangelicals, who support his very heavy family values approach and his leadership in getting a variety of Christian slogans on license plates, had an amazing response. "Just because he had sex with men doesn't mean he's gay." "It was probably some sort of mistake." Wow!
The Head of the Board of Education selected by loverboy Sanford has been upholding family values. She home-schools her children and has introduced a consevative curriculum in the school system. At night she likes to play on line suggesting she would really like to be in a threesome and looks forward to some girl-girl action. She even dabbles in writing erotica and likes to show up at political functions and show off her sheer underwear. That might make the South rise again.
Lawrence O'Donnell, who has been ably defending Democratic views on MSNBC, appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show and claimed that President Obama was desparate on the health care issue and was pessimistic about it passing. It was an unusual statement in a week of unusual events. Strip away all the noise and polling on healthcare reform remains fairly consistent when people are asked about the particulars of the plan. My gut tells me something substantial will be passed.
Margaret and Helen, America's oldest bloggers, have been unkind on the subject of Republican criticisms of the health care reform. In their eighties, they promise everyone they'll live as long as they want and will spend the grandchildren's inheritance doing so. The ladies warn Americans about congress types who claim God speaks to them. They particularly aim their arrows at Michelle Bachman of Minnesota, who loves to boast she is the most hated Republican woman in America--after Sarah Palin. Michelle Bachman urged her supporters to slit their wrists this week and create a blood bond to prevent healthcare reform from passing. She also promised that even though Democrats want to elect the first woman President, God will decide on a Republican. Pretty strong stuff. Margaret and Helen dished about the lack of education of some of the Republican luminaries such as Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, both of whom dropped out of college. They did say at least Palin got her degree after six years and five colleges later.
And speaking of Glenn Beck--he continues to infuriate me because of his colossal ignorance. The other night he decided to "decode the architecture of Rockefeller Center" as an allegory of progressive-fascist-communist conspiracies somehow linked to the Rockefeller Family and --ergo--Obama (?) The history of art in Rockefeller Center is well-documented with such pyrotechnics as Diego Rivera creating a fresco with Lenin and a lampoon of Rockefeller as part of a pay dispute. This is so well-known you have to be truly ignorant to make up your own history without any reference to it.
Advertisers continue to flee Glenn Beck, which only fuels his self-aggrandizement as the sole purveyor of truth. In Washington, we look forward to the grand finale of his 9-12 project, which somehow believes the United States was created during the Revolution and then time-travelled to 9-11, which in Beck's perverse world we became as One--sort of like a post-modern Woodstock built on tragedy. And the fine country that existed then is being taken away from us by the fiendish black man Barack Obama. The 9-12 project is to conclude with the gathering of the tea-baggers, who I guess will wait the Rapture. On the 13th then, we are to see the March on Washington of all those for healthcare reform.
This non-stop insanity since September shows no let-up. Birthers, Deathers, Tenthers, Gun nuts and the Ayran Christs make a very dangerous brew. Dan Savage was quite correct that these people want the President dead--no iffs, no ands or buts. You would have to go back to the tail-end of the Eisenhower era, when the extreme right emerged to accuse Ike and his cabinet, which included General Marshall, of being fellow travellers and Comsymps. When JFK was elected, this underbelly of our society put the train in motion that fueled the assasinations of JFK, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, even though the assassins themselves had a variety of politics. They legitimized violence as a way to settle disputes in our democracy. The same is going on today. What is striking is that there are no mature adults emerging on the Right to neutralize this. Instead we have Senator Jim Inhofe claiming "all our institutions are under attack today. And the President is thinking about letting terrorists free in our country" And you can make your own list of elected officials that re-iterate this nonsense ad nauseum.
I'm tempted to give it rest myself. These people are so certifiable, it is anxiety provoking just to follow their rantings. In the next posts, I'll talk about some good books that have been printed--some even by socialists.
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