Like a Bad Penny . . .

James O'Keefe has turned up yet again, and is up to his weird shit. This time he's back with the racist garbage.

The image is his "mission statement" for his scheme to embarrass CNN through one of it's female reporters.

Here's a link to the story:

Who's The Punk.


Oddly enough, many cons, including his (former) partner in crime (so to say) Breitbart are cutting him loose. Given that Breitbart himself deliberately went out of his way to defame some innocent, in a deliberate and malicious attack on the NAACP with the intent to prove they were the real racists, I have to say . . . REALLY!

Both are bottom feeders. Both are political dirty tricksters who try to hide behind the label of journalists. Both love to race bait and entrap for the purpose of race baiting. And both are immature racists. So why the disassociation Andy? See too much of yourself when you look at Jimmy?

Here's my two last bits. I really hope Jimmy has some real terms to his probation. Seems to me there were attempted crimes here and a plot to carry them out -- a conspiracy that was complete even if the other co-conspirator conscientiously backed out and informed the target of the scam. So he really should be (I hope) dragged back before that judge (I really hope they put terms on him!)

Beyond that, this shunning of him by the hypocritical right? I might finally get what I hoped for when news of his arrest hit the news, last year. Maybe he knows some good dirt against his ex friends, and now is ready to start squealing like a piglet.

That would make for some good entertainment, particularly if it can help blunt the GOP and the Tea Baggers in the Mid Terms.

No Politics. I'm Too Angry for That.

But instead I declare. I will not watch Mrs. Palin's daughter on DWTS. I don't usually watch it. I don't wish ill on the pseudo celeb, but I have a fav: Jennifer Grey. Some might think her a ringer, on account of that dancing movie, and having the well trained and talented Patrick Swayze as a partner. But still. She never was herself a well known hoofer as such, nor was her momma the dance instructor.

So much for my fluff post.

Something of a Follow Up to My Last Post. Culture Wars Are Back!

I just watched an interesting piece by Rachel Maddow about how the Culture Wars are back.

Not to say they ever really went away, but buzz in the media downplayed that cluster of issues in favor of the Tea Baggers insane rantings, in favor of the very same Right Wing economic policies that led to the crash of 2008. Some folk never learn. Even when the dog is biting them in the ass for a third or fourth time, they still will never learn.

And that brings me back to culture wars.

Now in my mind we have to not only crush the narrative, and redirect the anger in the heartland back on the GOP this election season, individually (more so than generally) we need to hit these mentally ill tea bag candidates where each are individually weakest. Attack the GOP across the board for being the harbingers of doom, and despoilers of the nation. Attack the individual candidates for the crazy shit the say, or believe, or their lack of real jobs for years and years, or what ever is their soft spot.

The future is at stake here. These bastards almost did us all in just two years ago. (Granted. It was a disaster 30 or so years in the making, but 2008 was when we all almost lost the whole country to those bastards.)

We can't let them have control ever again. The nation they will create will either be a corporate oligarchy, a leveraged subsidiary of some foreign entity. Perhaps a bit of both?

Either way (or any way or shape it takes) I do not want to live in the world where less taxes and smaller government takes me. That's for revanchists. And that's a fancy word for backward thinking shit heads. And I want none of that!

Just When You Thought the GOP Got Over Fear of Gays . . .This.

UPDATE - 3:05 p.m.: Senate Republicans, led by John McCain (R-Ariz.), have blocked the Senate from considering the defense authorization bill Tuesday afternoon. By blocking the bill from moving to the Senate floor, Republicans accomplish the objective of stalling the repeal of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy and blocking the Senate from considering the DREAM Act, which would give young, undocumented immigrants a pathway to citizenship if they enlist in the military or enroll in college.

They're at it Again


They're Bigots and there is no hope for them any time soon, even if some of the rank and file are getting it.

Christine O'Donnell, Mrs Palin, Their Supporters. And Why They Are Beyond Merely Stupid.

Quick answer to that question is "The Dunning-Kruger Effect."

The quick explanation of what exactly that is, is to say that some people are so damn stupid, they are incapable of knowing how stupid they are.

For a deeper analysis, go here.

Now what does that have to do with O'Donnell and Palin? Ok. In the warped world of extreme right wing politics, being a near if not almost total idiot is no hardship. I mean really. Don't you have to be something of an idiot to be crowned as a Prince or Princess of Idiots?

At the very least I should try to give props where due. Mere accomplishment of certain things do not mean a person is smart in the intellectual sense. After all, if one achieves fame or fortune because a bunch of other people are so stupid they will give you money and/or votes, that is not the same as curing cancer. Shit. That's not even the same as being able to change a flat tire. Anyway. Mrs. Palin sure knows how to sell out (let's go back to sarcastic for a moment, here, fleece that portion of the population even less bright than she is.) And Ms. O'Donnell sure knows how to run for the Senate from Delaware. Seems to me, that has been the closest thing to a job she has had, for the last five years.

But ya. I am not going to go on a rehash here about why conservative ideology as it seems to be in the year 2010 is at best bullshit, and at worse, a how-to on how to enslave and greatly reduce the American Middle class. I mean really. Anyone who does not get it yet, that the GOP really is deliberately trying to do that either has been in a walking coma since the Reagan years, or,

is too stupid to know how stupid they are.

Mostly unrelated throwaway. I expect to see Ms. O'Donnell "crucified" on the antisemitism issue. I'd happily lead the charge. But I need a contract first.

(Abs is trying to go pro, here.)

The Week is off to a Fine Start. We Have a Front Runner for Insane, Pathological Right Wing Liar of the Week, Already. And it's Not Even 9 am Yet.

Keeping in mind that the Alaskan Pathological Liar and hands down champion of Reality TV, Mrs. Palin, already endorsed her (La Cage a Folle,) the lurid details coming out about Delaware teabaggerette Christine O'Donnell, presents a Reality TV plot line that is easily as much a "Must Watch" train wreck, as the saga of the Wasilla Snowbillys.


Let's recap as if it were a pitch to a TV executive. "We've got your sex. We've got your betrayal. We've got secrets and lies. We've got a very crazy lady who tries to lie her way out of every jam she gets herself into. It's like an Opera with out the singing. Or it's like "I Love Lucy," without the physical comedy. But we can add that in, if you want, for comic relief."


Now for the real synopsis. The tale goes off in several directions. Now the truth about the uncompleted college degree comes out. She did not pay all the tuition for her last term, and was a few credits short of earning her degree, as well. She had pay up, and take a class to close out both accounts.

But here is where it really gets all Reality TV, weird. She apparently was telling people, like employers, that she had in fact earned her degree. She (nervy, crazy lady) actually took one of those employers to court (dropping the case, later) for a sex discrimination claim because of a demotion (and later firing) based on the fact she really wasn't a college grad.

How delusionally warped is that?

I am not going to quote, but I will link.

Here's the part where I go all improv.

Isn't it funny how people of a certain political persuasion profess the superiority of smaller government and decry "political correctness" and "nanny statism" but the second they feel they got less than they believe they deserved, they run right to the government or the courthouse? They will do that even when they know they were wrong, when they lied, when the broke the rules. The being actually legally entitled, part, really has no bearing on their complaints. These people who seem to worship at the altar of self reliance and the "Pioneer Spirit" seem to be, once push come to shove, the biggest cry babies in the Kindergarten. Never mind they, while not to a person, but by and large, tend to be at least pathologically self delusional and contradictory, if not pathological liars.

Ok. I got my shots in there. And I don't think they are cheap. I might seem to be painting with a broad brush, but I tend to use just enough qualifiers to escape that charge. But still. There is this group dysfunction (by and large, perhaps not complete) with the American Right Wing, which allows them to overlook such obvious mental instability in candidates, even when and after such embarrassing details come to light. And I am not going off any research here. I am free styling. Seems to me that among the reasons for that is, that some of those people are so ideologically driven that what matters more to them is that their candidates are ideologically pure enough. Whether or not they are honest enough, or mentally stable enough is a secondary consideration. Seems to me, at least. Beyond that, I honestly think there is a sizable enough chunk of the population at large, and particularly more so of that political persuasion, who basically lead such messy, dishonest, delusional, and immature lives, that instead of having a negative view of of a "Hot Mess" such as Mrs. Palin, or the lesser known Ms. Christine O'Donnell, they have instant empathy.

It's actually more than mere ideological purity. It's a social and psychological empathy, between people who deeply identify with each other. Or perhaps it's the socio-political equivalent of co-dependence. I am going to end this with that French phrase I used above -- La Cage a Folle.

My Latest Democratic Campaign Slogan/Message.

Voting GOP is like trusting an abusive spouse's promise not to:

blow the paycheck at the track,

or kill the dog, or crash the car while drunk,

or set your clothes on fire, for the seventh time.


I know. It's a little wordy. I might try to slim it down.

Right Wing Ugly Nasty Racist Bigot of the Week. Surprise . . .

It's not Pastor Jones, no matter what a piece of crazy trash he might be. The real winner is Newt Gingrich.

Why?

If you haven't heard he has not only stepped up the racist smearing of Potus Obama, but he is releasing a DVD all about how the Islamists are out the destroy America.

So this is how he starts his campaign for the Nomination? Taking propaganda tips from Hitler and Goebbels?

Screw Godwin's law. Sometimes the Nazi comparisons are spot on. This is one of those cases.

Now when will we see his minions wearing some spiffy matching gear?


(Makes me SICK!)

To the Non Survivors of 9/11, and Those Who are Not Locals, and Don't Get it? Bite Me.

I almost posted this on my FB page, well, something close to it.

But that's where my friends and family are. And I did not want to risk anyone I really care about getting the wrong idea. But I noticed the following this year, particularly based on my FB life.

The closer to being a local of NYC the more likely one is to be, on this anniversary, this time of year, fixed on what was lost, not the event of the attack.

And the more liberal and reasonable one is, the more likely one is to focus on the loss not the event of the attack.

Right wingers, particularly those who are distant from the event, both geographically and rationally reality based, seem more fixated on the violence. I am not saying it is a hard and fast rule. This is fuzzy logic. But I can not escape or deny the conclusion that bat fucking loon right wingers are far more likely to be far more fixated on the violence of the event than the actual meaning of it.

Fuckers.

Oliver Cromwell's Bones, Burning Korans, and What is Wrong With America, Today.

History has it that one of the first things Charles the II of England did after gaining the British throne was to order that the body of Oliver Cromwell be dug up. After that, Cromwell’s body was tried, and hung for regicide, among other crimes. Fact that Cromwell was dead already and way past punishment or pain seems to have been lost on King Charles.

It might have been emotionally satisfying to some small degree, but I sincerely doubt it was a lasting catharsis, or resolution. There is something weird about humans -- they can embark on a futile and meaningless path, knowing it will not sooth the hurt, but they will do it anyway. And that brings me to what is going on in America, lately. We have that crazy bigot in Florida, planning on burning Korans. We have people all over the country being upset that some Moslems want to build a cultural center in Tribeca. We have, it seems, quite a bit of free floating, if not directed fear and hate in the air. That is not good.

And now I move into the difficult territory; 9/11. Before I say word one about that event, specifically, I say as a current and at that time resident of the NYC Area, I know that there are thousands of people who were touched more deeply than myself. I call them the real survivors. Then there are people like me -- locals who lived through it, but we did not lose near enough or experience it close enough to really rate as a classic survivor. Then there is everyone else. (Please assume I mean all real survivors, when I say survivors.)

I make the distinction between people who saw it on TV and those who saw it live. It you only experienced it as a TV event? You are entitled to an opinion. Personally, I won’t put much value in it. However, I am ever mindful that there are real survivors out there, and my heart will always go out to them, and be with them. I can never know the depth of the feelings of the real survivors. It would be ignorant and presumptions of me to even pretend that, for a moment.

So I am clearly not talking to the real survivors, or my fellow Greater NYC people, but “everyone else” when I say, get over it. Don’t forget, but get over the emotionality, and stop with the sure-to-be unsatisfying demagoguery and hate mongering.

Yes, the nation was attacked. Yes, we lost something as a nation, as a society, in that we lost a basically artificial sense of security (and it really was, those of us who know World History well enough know that’s true.) I do not want to act like that is not important. False senses of security can be comforting in the short run. Like most residents of the NYC Area, I was oddly comforted by the sight and sound of fighter jets doing patrols over the city and surrounding area, just after the attack, even if intellectually I knew damn well that it was only closing the barn door after the horses had run off. And I understood it was an enormous waste of fuel and money. But it was comforting. Point is, after a while the brain should kick in, and people should be able to think with their heads again, particularly those who really did not lose anything tangible or real.

So let’s review the past 9 years. We had the short and unsatisfactory initial attack on the Taliban and Al-Qaeda (and are still stuck in ops there, but that is another story.) But there really wasn’t all that much to blow up in Afghanistan. But what about Iraq? So the powers that be decided to use every trick the fictional Don Draper and the real David Olgivy would have used, to shift the nation’s anger and fear and hate over to Saddam Hussein. And that marginally worked, insofar as enough support for that misadventure was ginned up to support the initial mission.

According to the latest polling, Americans no longer think it was worth it, by 2 to 1. Of course the question is, if America was properly informed about what it was likely to end up costing in lives, limbs, and treasure, would they have supported the “Shock and Awe,” campaign? Being the cynic I am (and one of the nay sayers from way back) I have to say, that enough people still might have supported the Invasion of Iraq, if they had a better understating of the cost. After all, they dug up Cromwell’s corpse, right? Personally, as a purely emotional matter, I could in theory say I wish we could dig up Ronnie Reagan and put him on trial for high crimes and misdemeanors. But my intellectual faculties would prevent me from actually endorsing such a ridiculous thing.

And that gets us back to the Koran burners, and Mosque site arsonists, and Park 51 haters. Again, people. And I repeat, I don’t mean the real survivors, or my fellow Greater New Yorkers. I mean you people who would have a hard time finding the 42nd Street Branch of the NY Public Library without a map, never mind Park 51 (took me a good five to ten minutes to find it on foot, just by my own memory’s navigation data, from Chambers Street, last week.) None of that nonsense is going to restore the country/world to the way it was on 9/10/2001. You are never, ever going to get that false sense of security and invulnerability back. Those days are gone. No matter how angry and hateful you get, nor how loud and resentful you can be, that America is every bit as gone as the America of “Father Knows Best,” and, ”The Donna Reed Show.” And that America was nearly as fictional as the Hollywood shows. Yes, we lived in a world that seemed like it was real. But a lot of the rest of the world was a scary place where there were many more and much more scary people. And yes, they have found us and have hurt us. So we really need to concentrate on the actual bad guys, not merely different looking or sounding, or praying guys, maybe?

And I know that there are more things driving fear, and that leads to easy hate, here in America. We have a much sucking economy (I refer back to digging up Ronnie Reagan’s bones, as he is one of the chief architects of our economic troubles.) Despite the fact that Fox News, and other Right Wing voices deny what is basic Sociology 101 fodder (that like groups will demonize if not attack non like groups merely for the sense of security it brings,) there has been a serious bump in that kind of, “Us against Them,” thinking in America. That “theory” is a fact of social science. And it is a fact that people are lashing out against “others,” in America, in an alarmingly growing rate. Denying that is the same as denying reality. And it is happening on racial and ethnic and religious grounds. (If you can find someone who is different on all three points, you win the Trifecta in the Hatred Derby!)

I had hoped by the time I got most of my thoughts down, I would have figured out a tidy if not witty conclusion. It’s not working out that way. But I guess if I have to say something to end this, I might as well say, don’t get me wrong, America. I am not saying your ‘emotions’ are not genuine. But I am saying, get over it. A genuine emotion could very well be no more factual than a genuine delusion. It feels real, but from the objective point of view, it’s clearly not supported in fact. So please America. Stop with the hate mongering and fear whoring. All that nonsense is every bit as futile as digging up the dead guy, putting him on trial, and then hanging the previously dead body on the gallows.

I wish I could honestly say America is smarter and better than that. But I repeat what I said above, about knowing history. And I know that America has to constantly work at being smarter and better. So let’s quit screwing around and get to it.

Mrs. Palin's a Pathological Liar. Who Knew? Me, and Everyone With an I.Q. Above 6, seems. Anyway . . .

I suppose I should link the Vanity Fair Article that all the this new (round up the usual suspects, kind of new) bro ha ha ha comes from. But don't I have VF on my sidebar already? Anyway here is Sully's take. I haven't read it yet. But for me the only part I was surprised to learn was that all that hunting shit was a lie.

Granted, I have been wondering for weeks if not months if her pappy ever said,"Don't retreat. Reload." That one smelled of ripe nasty bullshit to my nose, from day one.

Here ya go.

Liar Liar, Such a Dirty Liar.

Different Circumstances Call For Different Tactics.

I am about to give two different tactical "directions" to people (well, abstractly, neither reads this blog.) I think the circumstances are so different, and the stakes are so much more dissimilar that going in opposite directions is really the only way to go.

(Hint. It's the political one that matters. The other one is pure bullshit, actually. But I wanted a contrast, for the sake of the essay.)

First case concerns a contestant on "Big Brother." Yes, I the guy who for the past few years have been ranting against the scourge of "reality TV" got sucked back into that crap, this season. Hey. I don't even consider it reality tv. It's a contest. It's more like watching a sport than the lurid thrill of watching ugly (personality-wise) people being themselves. Anyway, this season, this week, the 'drama' concerned one contestant who seemed (and things change hour by hour) to run out of his luck. Now he is gay, not that that matters. But he is very whiny, and in the depths of his misery of being (so he thinks) likely to be sent home, he is getting even more whiny and pissy and basically acting like a child. Not the way to go, sport. Firstly, there are things going on in the background that might save his whiny ass for one more week. But more's the point. If he is really on his way out the door, this is his last time to make himself look good to the nationwide TV Audience. Go out like a champ. Go out like a person that other people would instantly respect. Don't go out like a frigging cry baby.

And that gets us to the political matter. Sen. Lisa Murkowski conceded to her tea bagger challenger. Now should she do as I say the Big Brother contestant should do? Hell no! I don't think she should go out like a cry baby, but I think she should speak truth to idiots. I think she should indict the Tea Bagger Movement, and the callous, cowardly GOP Leadership for pandering at all to those miscreants. I think she should go all prophet on them and remind them that they might get some ill gotten undeserved gains as a party come Nov., but that is more on account of anxiety over the economy, not the Party. The Party is self destructing. The Party is the dog that is being wagged by the tail. The Party, if it continues drifting hard right is going to fall off the sharp edge of the ends of the earth. Not that the earth is flat, but politically speaking? Ya It very well could be. The GOP needs to reinvent itself as a party of sane, rational adults, if it is to survive the next couple decades.

NOT that I really want that to happen. But It would be good entertainment to see Sen. Murkowski sing that song. It will be more entertaining to me, than most summer TV (now that the good summer shows are mostly done.)

That Lady Doctor Found Dead in the Chimney?

I am not going to judge.


I have made some really disastrous relationship/attachment choices with the opposite sex. When I snap out of it, I write a blues song commemorating my not-so narrow escape.

So far I have three songs:


"Redhead Took All My Money,"

"Brunette Had Sex With Another Guy in My Bed," and the most recent,

"Blonde Tried to Kill Me."


So with that in mind, all I am going to say about that lady is,

'Poor thing.'