Afternoon Tidbits

Just in time to help pass healthcare reform:

• Minnesota court rules for Franken in Senate fight

And the following dipstick is always good for a spot of entertainment, although if he was the governor of my state I would be having a conniption fit right about now:

• S.C. governor "crossed lines" with more women

See what happens when I go away from my computer for a few hours?

Shiver Me Timbers

I hope he stays true to his word:

• Mitt Romney says publicly he's not considering another presidential campaign

I cannot imagine a worse representative of the United States to the world than Mitt Romney, except perhaps for Sarah Palin or Bobby Jindal.

However, I'm confidant Romney will go back on his word and be amongst the candidates in the 2012 presidential election.

Southern Twist

Although somewhat unrelated to politics, I had an experience over the weekend that seemed to validate my opinion that many members of the so-called right-wing are indeed uninformed fanatics.

I have a page at Facebook where I keep in contact with family members and friends. On occasion I accept friend "requests" from people I don't know only if they happen to be existing friends of family members or other friends. Anyone who has a page at Facebook knows this is standard operating procedure. I try to be careful about it because I don't want some loony tune leaving me messages all the time. Thankfully, Facebook makes that impossible unless a friend request is accepted.

Over the weekend one of my so-called friends made a joke about the death of Michael Jackson, and I left a short comment that it was in poor taste. I'm not much of a celebrity-follower or fan of pop music (I lean toward rock and roll), but the "plastic" joke and lack of respect for the dead offended me. No matter what one's personal opinion of Jackson, there was no denying that the man had extraordinary talent. Besides, he was never convicted of any crime in a court of law. That used to mean something until tabloid reporting came to the fore.

At any rate, someone else left a comment following mine that ranted about Jackson being a pedophile and a sick pervert that deserved to die. This person went on to proudly proclaim that he was a SOUTHERN (uppercase used by him) conservative and that most southerners saw the world differently than the rest of us.

No kidding?

The "commenter" came off as bigoted, uneducated and blissfully oblivious. Like many people influenced by tabloid reporting and entertainment television media, he assumes Jackson guilty even though twelve jurors found him innocent of multiple charges four years ago. Rush to judgment and embellishment of the truth seems to be easier for the uninformed rather than digging for valid facts before speaking.

Kind of like Republicans in the political spectrum, aye?

Another convenient feature at Facebook is the ability to delete friends when the need arises.

Money Grub

Most of us already know about this:

• The Sickening Influence of Campaign Contributions

Why can't we have a perfect world where specific members of congress and the senate go to Washington to carry out our wishes rather than to promote their own careers and line their pockets?

After all, we elected them to do a job. We also pay their overblown salaries. Is it too much to ask that they work for the people instead of themselves?

Inequitable Stew

This particular example is the prime reason Fixed News remains a biased and non-legitimate source for current events:

• Hannity Reluctantly Calls On Ensign To Resign

But only after being prodded by Democratic strategist Bob Beckel.

Hannity claimed not to know where Senator John Ensign stood on "moral values" issues, although it is common knowledge Ensign claims himself as a protector of the institution of marriage.

Finally, Hannity admitted to Beckel: "If you're going to be a family-values candidate and a family-values politician, and you don't live up to that, I think you should resign."

Why didn't he just say that to start with? If the Senator in question had been a Democrat, you can bet your bottom dollar Hannity would have been all over it with his smug and uninformed posturing. It's hard to imagine that anyone can listen to his nightly spew and not question the accuracy of its origin or intent.

The man is a hypocrite in the truest sense of the word, which seems to go hand in hand with being a member of the Republican party.

GOP Goad

The continued insistence from the right that President Obama interfere in the goings-on in Iran presents itself as glaringly obvious.

• Republicans call Obama timid on Iran: Critics say president needs to take a tougher public stand

Republicans want the President to interfere because they know it's the wrong thing to do. Perhaps in their delusional grandeur they believe people will listen to their misguided opinions and act rashly as a consequence.

All in all, it's a transparent and manipulative tactic: Goad people into thinking the President should intervene in Iran so that he looks bad if he doesn't, and appears inept if he does because it's a foolhardy move to begin with.

Desperate Doings

This is utterly ridiculous:

• Olive Garden yanks Letterman ads

I wanted to avoid all mention of the Letterman-Palin bout because I find her scarily dim and superfluous, but now that the overdone media coverage seems to be over......

I thought the entire Palin debacle with David Letterman was overkill in the first place. It was a simple ploy for media attention by the inept and fumbling governor of Alaska.

Can you imagine if Palin and her trigger-happy running mate McCain had won the election and were now running the country with their overreach and disingenuous ideals? I literally shudder at the nightmare scenario, not just for Americans but for people across the globe.

As for the Olive Garden going along with the idiocy, I was never much interested in their restaurants in the past and have no intention of frequenting them in the future.

One other tickler about this topic that has annoyed me was the assumption by Palin that her family should be treated in the same fashion as President Obama's. She said something along the lines of "if Letterman has spoken about President Obama's daughters the way he spoke about mine, everyone would have been up in arms."

First of all, Sarah Palin is not even the same realm as the President. Despite her celebrity, the woman is of no national importance. What is good for the goose is not good for the gander in this case. There is no comparison, frankly. I don't mean to appear as fanatical as the right wing about this, but in my mind Palin is extraneous.

And her faux outrage is just that – she is looking for opportunities to stay in the public eye and will use her own family to those ends in the process.

Zombie Continuum

My God, don't these people ever get tired of saying no?

• Republicans try to obstruct health care bill

As I stated the other day, and I repeat: The time for coddling the right-wing is over, political correctness be damned. Conservatives are in the minority, so let's just shove them aside and get down to work.

In a related story:

• Gallup health care poll: Americans put faith in insurance companies over GOP

When will the Zombies get the message?

Inside the House

This is very cool:

• Interactive Map: Inside the White House

When you click on the various rooms, little windows pop up with real photos or tidbits of information about the specific areas.

Psychotic Pigs

What is wrong with these people?

• State GOP staffer sends racist image of Obama

As comments from the article maintained: "Racism emanates from the Republican party," "the hate just keeps on coming" and "stay classy, Republicans...play to the 20%."

Many members of the GOP are psychotic, racist pigs – or is it the entire lot of them? I'm beginning to wonder.

Attack of the Zombies

Good read from the Daily Beast:

• Attack of the Zombie Republicans
  
  The GOP's living dead won't stop haunting their party, says lifelong Republican John Batchelor. Now Rush, Newt, and Dick are doing what zombies do best: laying waste to everyone's brains.

Perhaps my favorite words in the article:

A once-idealistic, decent political party of all the states and all demographics for 150 years has now become a cruel cadre that defines itself like a jihad—by what it is against.

I don't know about anyone else, but I rather like the appellation of "Zombies" for the GOP. It's easier and shorter to type than the "Party of No."

More Ill Affects

Speaking of ill effects…

• Rove: Bush Administration Has No Responsibility For Current Budget Deficits

As most of us with a brain know, President Clinton left a budget surplus for Bush. So what happened in the ensuing eight years?

• Bush presided over the largest debt increase of any U.S. president in history

Where on earth do these right-wing yahoos get their facts? It's as if they are in denial that Bush was perhaps the worst president in American history.

In addition, their continued hate, fear mongering and non-action barely conceal a deep-seated bigotry that extends to their overall views about American citizens and President Obama.

The time for coddling the right-wing is over, political correctness be damned. Conservatives are in the minority, so let’s just shove them aside and get down to work.

Ill Affects

Here's what most Republicans don't want people to understand:

• Business cycle, Bush policies linked to most of federal government's deficits

The GOP wants people to believe that the majority of the massive deficit is President Obama's doing. Not even close.

President Obama's agenda, ambitious as it may be, is responsible for only a sliver of the deficits, despite what many of his Republican critics are saying.

Judd Gregg recently held up a chart on the Senate floor showing that Mr. Obama would increase the deficit — but failed to mention that much of the increase stemmed from extending Bush policies. In fact, unlike Mr. Obama,
Republicans favor extending all the Bush tax cuts, which will send the deficit higher.

The United States will probably feel the ill affects of the Bush presidency for many generations to come.

Palin Spew

It's scary to think people still listen to this woman or take her words seriously:

• Sarah Palin: Barack Obama's agenda not sensible

Of course, one must consider the source.

Healthcare Foes

Let's face it. Republicans don't want changes to healthcare in this country because too many of them are lining their political pockets with dubious goods from insurance and pharmaceutical companies. They will scream to the rafters before they let their money trains come to an end, the rest of the country and the uninsured be damned.

The GOP does not have an alternative healthcare plan. Unless it's just me, I haven't seen any of them scrambling to create one, either.

From Carrie Budoff Brown at CBS News via Politico:

There's no Republican plan [for healthcare] yet. No Republicans leading the charge who have coalesced the party behind them. Their message is still vague and unformed. Their natural allies among insurers, drug makers and doctors remain at the negotiating table with the Democrats.

Yet they will fight tooth and nail any plan presented by the Democrats or President Obama – sight unseen.

Here's an idea: elected GOP members of Congress and the Senate who have nothing to offer in the way of an alternate solution should give up their own plush healthcare plans to see what it's like to live without medical insurance coverage.

Let them give over their own security for the benefit of the millions of Americans wandering around without decent healthcare.

Fixed Diatribes

Some examples of the "fair and balanced" reporting to be found at Fixed News:

• Fox News falsely asserted Obama claimed there is no more terrorism
• Hannity's new false talking point: Obama decided to take over Fannie, take over Freddie
• Hannity, Steyn misrepresent Obama's comments on Hamas
• Hannity falsehood: Obama gave "go-ahead" for Iran nukes
• Fox hosts revive Fox-manufactured Obama apology tour
• Fox Nation headline falsely claims: Obama Says U.S. Is a Muslim Country

For more pearls of twisted wisdom, visit the Fixed News page at Media Matters.

How can the Fixed "newscasters" keep a straight face on camera? Their viewers are likely brainwashed and gulp down anything they report, no matter that it's comprised of blatant fiction.

I'm sure it helps that most of the viewers are probably Obama-haters and bigots to their secret cores.

Roving Numb Nut

I don't normally like to blog on weekends, but this is so tiresome…like a broken record:

• Rove: Who Cares Whether Muslims Approve or Like The President of the United States?

Does Karl Rove have the same laissez-faire attitude towards Catholics, Christians, and Jews? Americans? Senior Citizens? The handicapped? Other minorities? Or is it just the Muslim population he is attempting to minimize in his own numb-nut fashion?

The man doesn't have a clue that for the most part he is viewed as a joke amongst people with good judgment, clarity and common sense.

One of the inescapable facts about the Republican party is that that majority of its members are a pack of bigots who dismiss anyone who doesn't agree with them as suspect or un-American, which is why their numbers are rapidly dwindling and why they lack credibility.

I think it's time to look into thine own mirror.

Lurch & Babble

The absurdity continues:

• Inhofe Rips Obama As Un-American, Suggests He's On The Side Of Terrorists

If anyone appears un-American these days, it is the ultra-conservative fanatics with their fear-peddling and hate mongering. They obviously have nothing better to occupy their time, although they might consider doing the jobs they were elected to do once in a blue moon.

Does anyone remember the "town hall meeting" McCain held during the presidential campaign, in which the nutty old lady in the audience told him she didn't like Obama because she thought he was a Muslim? To my surprise, McCain defended Obama. Later, I wrote about the incident on my primary web log Irish Eyes (re: Spec of Light, 10/11/08).

Because of the constant right-wing barrage on President Obama from less than credible sources, I have come to the conclusion that the majority of the Republican Party is as simple-minded and uneducated as the woman who lurched in front of McCain's microphone last October and babbled her nonsense.

With each passing day and each absurd headline, the GOP is becoming more or less irrelevant.

Mitt Herring

Mitt Romney is a Ken-doll politician, although the toy version is much more appealing. Romney is phony and condescending, not to mention his opinion on any topic has as much impact as a kittenish sneeze.

Who is he to give unsolicited advice to President Obama about mending global fences knocked down by Bush?

From the US News article Mitt Romney on Obama's Cairo Speech - No Apologies:

…in reaching out to other nations we certainly should not stand up and apologize for America.

We wouldn't be in a position to apologize if not for the actions of the previous president, who had as much finesse and diplomatic skill as a red herring.

“Muser” left this comment after the US News article:

If we Americans had wanted Mitt Romney to be our spokesman to the Muslim world, we would have elected HIM president. But, as you recall, we did not do that.

Well said.

Tuesday Goodies

I thoroughly enjoyed the first part of this program last night:

• A day in the life of Obama's White House

Brian Williams and the NBC team did an excellent job. Seeing the West Wing at work was fascinating, although I know not all aspects are revealed for obvious reasons. What a welcome change from the cloak-and-dagger approach of the previous tenant. I'm looking forward to part two of the program tonight.

On a somewhat unrelated note, I'm not surprised by the faux outrage of the right-wing and the fanatics at Fixed News over the President's date in New York City last weekend.

Do they ever tire of being angry and negative? Their overly-dramatic up-in-arms performances are hardly convincing, if not mind-numbingly boring and distasteful.

Selective Law

This is just one of the reasons I find members of the right-wing morally incomprehensible and mindlessly fanatical:

• Right-wing hate reacts to murder of Dr. George Tiller

I understand not all who claim to be amongst the right-wing are hate mongers, but those who think it acceptable to dismiss the murder of an actual human being are certainly not Christian in any sense, and less than human themselves. No matter what real law indicates, they do as they please and force their views down the throats of everyone else. I wrote more about this in my blog entry Free Will (05/08/09).

Abortion is not murder, but killing a man who respected the free choice of others and assisted them to that end is.

While on this earth federal and state laws are matter-of-fact, not the so-called "Law of God" which too many people twist to suit their own agendas.

Propaganda on the Road

I wouldn't pay one thin dime to see this:

• Glen Beck on comedy tour

Hell, I wouldn't go to see his act even if it was free. The man is an idiot, and he certainly isn't funny – not on any level.

He will find a big audience in Utah, no doubt.