Retreating, Reloading, and Aiming

Unprecedented political sell out Sarah Palin, now slated to become the host of a new reality TV show, has posted a "hit list" map of 20 House Democrats who voted to support health care reform.

Using the intentionally inflammatory rhetoric of gun violence, Palin advises followers, "Don't retreat. Reload!"

She uses cross hair imagery on political opponents. This is actually happening. I think we've passed the point of no return to where real bullets are going to enter the picture.

However, in what I think is an illuminating metaphor for this entire fiasco of nonsense (involving a lot more than Palin's grotesque exploitation of current events for financial gain), notice the marksmanship of the Killa from Wasilla regarding Congressman Harry Mitchell, and in particular, Congresswoman Giffords.

Ann Kirkpatrick, Harry Mitchell, and Gabrielle Giffords are clearly identified in the first column. Yes, this is picking a nit, but why not? Everyone else is. Ann has a district comprising almost half the state, but which cross-hairs are intending to reach their CD-5 and CD-8 targets? See the Arizona cross-hairs? How's your geography? Palin is hunting for Harry in Sedona and for Giffords in Show Low.

Fussing about the sloppiness of Palin's map is choir blogging, but noting that her message now includes elected officials as targets in cross-hairs at a site telling nut jobs to "re-load" is not.

Repealing Reality

The passage of the landmark Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has produced a new movement in the country. Calling themselves "Repeal the Steal!" a new group has formed comprised of Republicans, Libertarians, Tea Party activists, and others, to lead an organized effort to repeal the legislation. Founders, leaders, and early members of the movement gathered in Montgomery, Alabama, to discuss strategy.

Once the repeal of one bad law became a serious consideration, the group realized that it could consider efforts to repeal other problematic legislation that should be overturned. In addition to health care reform, they identified other disastrous laws that have damaged their vision for the nation.

1. The Higher Education Act of 1965
The Higher Education Act of 1965 dramatically expanded access to the nation’s colleges and universities. Our education system is infested with Soviet loving commies and atheists. My son went to school, and they told him a bunch of gobbledygook about fossils and glaciers. Now he thinks the dinosaurs were millions of years ago and is even questioning God. He’s questioning God!

2. Civil Rights Act of 1964
Introduced by JFK in a June 11, 1963 speech and signed into law by President Johnson on June 2, 1964, the bill led to the end of segregation and discriminatory voter registration requirements. This law was one of the worst things to ever happen in America. Now every moron can vote, and that’s the reason we have who we have in the White House right now. We need to go back to the days where you had to take a test and prove you were smart enough to vote.

3.Women’s Suffrage (1920)
Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution on June 4, 1919 and it was ratified on August 28, 1920. Families and decency went to hell when pansy ass liberals gave girls the right to vote. Now we got girls in the military. A man working for a girl is an abomination before God. Men with girl bosses causes homosexuality. All of the girls in Congress are lesbians, and they get abortions after their lesbian orgies. It’s an outrage and a humiliation! Could you imagine a country like England or Germany with a skirt in an important job?

4. The Abolition of Slavery (1865)
Passed by Congress January 31, 1865 and ratified on December 6, 1865, The 13th Amendment to the Constitution abolished slavery in the United States. These people, if they are people, were better off as slaves. The free market insures that slave owners treat slaves well, because happy slaves are more profitable. Cruelty and mistreatment of slaves is a NAACP hoax. The founding fathers gave us freedom, and that included the freedom to have slaves. The liberals say they stand for freedom. What about my freedom to own slaves? Let's face it, almost all of them are now in jail anyway.

5. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938
Also known as the "Wages and Hours Bill," the legislation was the first to enact a minimum wage and require compensation at 150% rates for overtime in certain jobs. The act also prohibited the use of child labor for almost all employment. This abomination of a bill is a perfect example of big government interference where it’s got no business. I oughta be able to employ whoever I want and pay whatever I want. Why can’t a six year old make a little money after school? This law is unconstitutional, a violation of my rights, and puts us on the slippery slope to communism.

The Repeal Movement is rapidly gaining steam, "Our first priority is health care and keeping government from taking over existing programs like Medicare. We have God on our side. All that happens is part of God's plan."

When this was said, a previously invisible hotel worker stocking a table with refreshments shocked the room by turning and asking loudly, "Why did God make Obama president?!"

Everyone fell into an awkward silence.

Then a man stood up, seething, "God made Obama president," he contemptuously pointed a finger at a picture of Obama painted as a clown, "because someone like him becoming president exposes the truth about some of the people in this country."

Lifting the Fog around the Fraud

In what could become a particularly powerful conversation for conservatives (tea) challenging the Republican establishment (acronyms) in upcoming primaries, a potent distinction is beginning to solidify in the wake of the recent tea party in Nashville and last week's CPAC in DC.

Glenn Greenwald's outstanding The GOP's "small government" tea party fraud masterfully captures what I have been trying to articulate for several weeks, the fracturing of the Republican party into different groups not remotely as aligned as suggested by a lie that has been perpetrated for decades. Through deception, misrepresentation, and outright lies, the Republican party has successfully duped certain groups into thinking it is something it is not. Perhaps the greatest of these lies is the notion that GOP leadership stands for limited government and responsible spending.

No they don't. In the reality of governance, Reagan/Bush I and Bush II with Republican support produced the greatest government expansions/deficits in US history. For decades, routine operating procedure for Republicans is massive expansion while in power and then foaming at the mouth about the deficits and over sized government after losing it.

Did they howl about the deficit in the 1980s or 2000-2008? Are you kidding? Cheney captured the sentiments perfectly, "Reagan showed us that deficits don't matter."

Part of what's happening now, and tea will agree, is that some actually do stand for limited government and fiscal discipline. After the 1980-1992 deficit orgy, independent thinking Ross Perot wasn't shy about the Reagan/Bush $4+ trillion dollar debt. More recently, but for years, Ron Paul has voiced these sentiments, but he is not exactly tea, explaining why this can get confusing.

This blog has lately been schizophrenic about "the conservatives." At one point, they seem intelligent and true to their values (Paul). Then they occur as blithering idiots (Palin, Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity). Then they occur as easily manipulated bitches (the sex obsessed theocrats). Time has a way, and matters may indeed be starting to clear up. A fog is lifting, and the distinction "GOP establishment" is emerging.

The final paragraph of the Greenwald piece:
But that GOP limited government rhetoric is simply never matched by that Party's conduct, especially when they wield power.  The very idea that a political party dominated by neocons, warmongers, surveillance fetishists, and privacy-hating social conservatives will be a party of "limited government" is absurd on its face.  There literally is no myth more transparent than the Republican Party's claim to believe in restrained government power.  For that reason, it's only a matter of time before the fundamental incompatibility of the "tea party movement" and the political party cynically exploiting it is exposed.

A very small sample of the 573 comments posted at the article:

As a Ron Paul supporter, I can tell you that the aftermath of the CPAC straw poll was both predictable and hilarious. Immediately the Republican establishment mouthpieces were telling us how worthless the poll is, and how meaningless it is. One wonders if that would have been the response had Sarah Palin won...me thinks not. Ron Paul supporters are under no illusions about the current Republican party, and realize that they hope to use us and make us believe that they have changed. We know better.

Most establishment Republicans just don't understand that you can't be fiscally responsible domestically, whatever they think that means, when you are trying to rule the world by spending trillions overseas. War always leads to tyranny at home.

The upcoming political season will be entertaining. To watch the Republicans, who think they are going to fold the Ron Paul supporters in as loyal subjects, start kicking and screaming when they realize that we are going to be fighting for actual change...or we won't vote for them...period.

This has been the Republican strategy for winning elections for some time now. Run up huge deficits, refuse to pay for them, let the democrats win for a term, and then campaign on the fact that the democrats are spending too much and can't get deficits under control. In effect, they have gotten what they wanted--state budget crises that are so severe that they force the elimination of much discretionary spending. Then they can use their pretend libertarianism to defeat the democrats. And it works every time. It's a wonder they aren't exposed as the frauds they are.

I hope the co-option of the tea party movement is unsuccessful. Libertarians and progressives need to make certain they do not fall into line, in any way with either major party. There is nothing small government about Republicans and there is nothing progressive about the Democratic party. I think this is a chance for actual progressives to reach people they ordinarily could not. That is because Libertarians will not take on the economic nightmare that ordinary people face. But progressives will.

As an unnamed Bush official told reporter Ron Suskind, "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality--judiciously, as you will--we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do." For those who didn't like it, another Bush adviser explained, "Let me clue you in. We don't care. You see, you're outnumbered two to one by folks in the big, wide middle of America, busy working people who don't read the New York Times or Washington Post or the LA Times."

What will it take for the people who really do believe in limited govt to realize that they are being used and abused? Are they really this stupid or do they just not care?

I agree about the GOP's gross hypocrisy about being for "small government" while inflating it as far as possible in practice. The claim to be "fiscal conservatives" falls under the same umbrella: it's basically just politically-driven lying, smoke and mirrors to get people to vote for big business and war without quite realizing it.

During the Bush years, when it came to invading Iraq, torturing people, military commissions, due-process-free detentions, endless expansion of the military, air-bombing villages in Afghanistan, and warrantless eavesdropping on American citizens, who was worse "nuts" and "loons" -- Ron Paul (who vehemently opposed all that) or those who enabled and supported it?

Truth and Illusion

An optimist might have hoped that the explosion of information technology would lead to a period of truth and enlightenment as the ability to confront lies and distortions increased. Sadly, the ability to proliferate total fiction has outpaced that of the truth. Naturally, we see this displayed most starkly in politics. The depth and breadth of fictions virtually cemented as fact for large numbers of people is breathtaking.

Fiction: Ronald Reagan reduced taxes and the scope of government.

Fact: Reagan reduced taxes ONCE and then raised them, again and again, every year afterward. During his administration the federal deficit mushroomed fourfold and the government expanded dramatically. Bush I continued the expansion and debt, leading 1992 presidential candidate Ross Perot to declare, "I don't have any experience running up a $4 trillion debt."

Who actually did reduce government, actually achieving a surplus? Bill Clinton. Then Bush II tossed the country off a cliff with the greatest expansion of government in history, VP Dick Cheney smiling, "Reagan showed us that deficits don't matter."

Telling this to a conservative is like telling a fish about water.

Fiction: Sarah Palin's Going Rogue is shattering all best seller book debuts.
Fact: Nonfiction sales cannot touch the figures for wildly popular fictional titles (Harry Potter). In the nonfiction category (despite its content) Sarah Palin's book had initial sales to the tune of 300,000, far short of the 400,000 initial sales of Bill Clinton's My Life (2004). Hillary Clinton's Living History (2004) and Obama's Audacity of Hope (2006) had initial sales of about 200,000.

Clinton's earlier It Takes A Village (1996) and Obama's Dreams from My Father (2004) spent many weeks on the NYC best seller list. The Clinton and Obama books went on to sell millions and still sell well.

The phenomenal attention Palin receives in the media and her massive book tour insured high initial sales, and the increased use of pre-ordering online favors more recently published titles. Time will tell.

Prediction: Palin's book will quickly sell a million copies, but come January it will be available used for less than five bucks. The 2.5 million units produced will prove sufficient, and within months the book will be a farce compared to the other titles above.

Let's skip the fact vs. fiction regarding the health care bill, especially the ruckus about abortion. Word from on high is that God gave a retching Christ some dopamine and a strong joint.

Fiction: Guantanamo inmates are too dangerous for federal prison.
Fact: Federal prisons successfully hold or have held extremely dangerous, skilled serial killers (BTK, Bundy, Son of Sam, Dahmer, Gacy, Ridgeway, Gein) as well as deeply networked and well financed organized crime bosses with resources to attempt escape. They don't. The small number of Gitmo detainees have more to fear than the US population if they are moved to federal prisons.

Fiction: Trying the 911 terrorists in a real trial gives them dangerous advantages and makes conviction less likely.
Fact: Federal courts have successfully tried over 100 terrorists since 911. We convicted Moussaui. We convicted Padilla. We convicted shoe bomber Reid, "Blind Sheik" Abdel-Rahman, and the 1993 WTC bombers Abouhalima, Ajaj, Ayyad, Yousef, Ismoil. All are in federal prison. Not one has not escaped, kidnapped the Mayor's daughter, or used the court to forward their agenda.
Prediction: KSM and Co. will be tried, convicted, and executed.

By the way, I'd heard but then forgotten that Carrie Prejean has a book. Is "Joe the Plumber" next? I wonder if Christ has any dopamine left.

Scozzafavaed

(Scozzafava) Material has amply proliferated about the leadership vacuum of the Republican Party and its dangerous drift rightward. Conservatives have successfully hijacked the NY CD 23 election. GOP candidate Dede Scozzafava, endorsed by Newt Gingrich, the NRA, and many "traditional" GOP supporters, has suspended her campaign and encouraged voters to elect Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman.

Conventional wisdom would predict the split giving the seat to Democrat candidate Bill Owens, and two weeks ago this was the anticipated outcome, rightly forecasting 2010 scenarios. However, this is bright red NY CD 23, meaning that the split might not create the draw down necessary for a blue victory. Scozzafava's withdrawal all but cements a Hoffman victory. Imagine the gasoline this throws on the tea bag fire.

Update (11/01): Frank Rich has a terrific Op-Ed on this topic, and as noted in the comments, Scozzafava did NOT endorse either Hoffman or Owens when she withdrew. The GOP has switched its support to Hoffman. The plot thickens. Today Scozzafava announced her support for Democrat Bill Owens.

Real Reasons Behind Nobel Prize Award

The real reasons the Nobel Prize Committee unanimously awarded President Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize:

10. The rest of the world doesn’t like the GOP either
9. International code for slamming Bush
8. Express gratitude to USA for electing a human being
7. Mock GOP sentiments and its reputation
6. Know GOP response will reinforce its reputation
5. Play Winner Takes All "Limbaugh Response" Fantasy Game
4. Unable to resist curiosity over what Palin and Bachman will say
3. Watch Karl Rove explain how this is a GOP victory
2. Watch Fox News become unglued
1. Spend the day laughing hysterically as GOP turns purple

COMING UP NEXT:

November:
The Global Ecovillage Network bestows President Obama with its "World’s Best Citizen" Award. The GOP condemns the group, alleging it has ties to terrorism, fascism, socialism, and vegetarianism.

December:
Jews for Jesus awards President Obama its "Religious Diversity" Award for his promotion of peace and cooperation in the world. The GOP blasts Jews for Jesus as a Christian hating group tied to "Islamic homosexualism".